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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Mysterious hexagon spotted above Saturn (this is cool)
2007-03-29
Signs and portents gentlemen, Signs and Portents
A mysterious giant hexagon lies above Saturn's north pole, captured by cameras on Nasa's Cassini Orbiter. Spanning 25,000km - equivalent to the width of two planet Earths - the bizarre geometric feature appears to remain virtually still in the atmosphere as clouds swirl around it.
Let the "2001, a space odyssey" references ensue.
The infra-red images show the hexagon - which contains a smaller six-sided formation - extends about 60km down into the clouds.
Posted by:Slomons Ebbomoth2581

#31  Looks like Saturn is off its nut.
Posted by: Cromert   2007-03-29 23:57  

#30  By the way, without any 'back pressure' at all, you would have affectation similar to a "visible" black hole, a perfectly circular event horizon, which this isn't.
Posted by: smn   2007-03-29 23:45  

#29  Brain Storm this people, imagine a bath tub full of mucky water rotating clockwise, while it's drain plug has been 'pulled'. The funnel affect of that water being siphoned down counter clockwise while looking straight down into the vortex (ie, drain) would look remarkable like the phenomena we see on top of Saturn. The "hex lines" would have to be caused by some type of factor 6 reverse pressure; and the person who figures out that 6 factor will be the one on the newspaper frontpage.
Posted by: smn   2007-03-29 23:38  

#28  I watched the movie. The entire thing rotates, although slowly. I saw darker 'streamers" moving from the "corners" toward the inner formation, which looked layered. Some pretty cool stuff, I admit. Reminds me of one of my favorite websites.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2007-03-29 20:05  

#27  Its obviously a STARGATE !
Posted by: JohnnieBartlett   2007-03-29 18:37  

#26  "A regular shape like a hexagon can only be designed by intelligence" Like the Giant's Causeway off the coast of Northern Ireland?
Posted by: Phealet Hitler6959   2007-03-29 18:23  

#25  Man, oh man, am I going to be listening (and visiting the websites) to what George Noory and Richard Hoagland have to say about this little bit of mystery (The Enterprise Mission article on the moon Enceladus is fascinating).

Posted by: FOTSGreg   2007-03-29 18:17  

#24  LOL!!
Posted by: Dave D.   2007-03-29 16:45  

#23  SAE Left Hand.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2007-03-29 16:24  

#22  Deacon's got that engineers eyeball. That's gotta be what it is.
Posted by: Shipman   2007-03-29 14:45  

#21  Deacon: SAE or Metric threads and are they LH or RH?
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2007-03-29 14:28  

#20  I vote for Deacon's theory.
Posted by: Mike   2007-03-29 12:48  

#19  Deacon, I think you've got it!
Posted by: Glenmore   2007-03-29 11:33  

#18  It's the socket for the Allen Wrench so that the rings can be removed.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2007-03-29 11:18  

#17  ..and allan said: A hex be upon you.
Posted by: Phineter Thraviger   2007-03-29 10:57  

#16  WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!!! THE GREY ALIEN INVASION IS COMING!! IT IS ALL BUSH'S FAULT!
Posted by: DarthVader   2007-03-29 09:55  

#15  Reminds me of the standing waves that result from sending vibrations through a liquid. Although on this scale it would have to be VERY low frequency (I think) and I have no idea what would make a planet vibrate.
Posted by: phil_b   2007-03-29 09:55  

#14  Since man landed on the moon Allah had to move somewhere....
Posted by: CrazyFool   2007-03-29 08:34  

#13  I for one welcome our new hexagonal overlords.
Posted by: Seafarious   2007-03-29 07:36  

#12  Well, not sure that can be applied here. We have one single element here (the nesting does not count--it i still a single element), we would have more hexagons present side-by-side if crowding was the case.
Posted by: twobyfour   2007-03-29 07:01  

#11  Hexagons instead of circles in situations of crowding are quite common in nature. Someone else already mentioned honeycombs. Another example is fish nests when the population density is high (sunfish have been known to do this).

Perhaps there is some general paradigm which applies here.
Posted by: no mo uro   2007-03-29 06:50  

#10  When I saw that picture, giant honey bees came to mind. There are many naturally occurring geodesic formations on earth; so why not in outer space or on other planets? Still, I like the idea of sending Al Gore to Saturn as an emissary.
Posted by: GK   2007-03-29 05:30  

#9  A regular shape like a hexagon can only be designed by intelligence, and it is clearly an inefficient use of energy, which will probably accellerate the heat death of the universe. Saturn must be made to understand the error of its ways. Al Gore must go there immediately, on a sacred mission to have Saturn sign the Kyoto protocol. Show them a movie or something. Or else, I will simply be unable to cope.

/Moonbat viewpoint
Posted by: Bunyip   2007-03-29 04:10  

#8  Mizzou, actually, some astronomers presume a solid core, possibly rocky, with inner core in hot, semi-liquid state. The main reason is that the planet outputs more enegy than it receives from sun.
Posted by: twobyfour   2007-03-29 04:02  

#7  SMN, Saturn is a gas giant. There is no rocky "surface" for there to be a volcano on. Just different levels of gas compression, until you come to the point where gas congeals.
Posted by: Mizzou Mafia   2007-03-29 03:52  

#6  

WANTED FOR QUESTIONING.
Posted by: Mizzou Mafia   2007-03-29 02:23  

#5  OMG, it's the Mother-Ship with Kloud-Kloaking!
Posted by: RD   2007-03-29 02:18  

#4  You guys are so weird. It's just a giant stop sign for UFOs before they hit the outer solar system. Duh.
Posted by: gorb   2007-03-29 02:02  

#3  My guess, A huge active volcano on the surface, belching it's product by a factor of 6 on Saturn's geosynchronous rotation! The size of this polar volcano, probable the first to be discovered in the solar system in the future is as big; as Mt Everest is to an ant mound. The 'lines' may be caused by a "suction hiccup" from the flue, or a rotational 'pause' of the entire surface of the planet from the backkick! Hey, it happened to Earth during that last tsunami for a fraction of a second!!
Posted by: smn   2007-03-29 01:09  

#2  Joe, so you were being literal! And I thought my babelfish is broken! ;-)

I can explain the hexagon -- interference pattern -- six standing waves that meet in the polar region, but can't explain the source of waves. ;-)
Posted by: twobyfour   2007-03-29 01:07  

#1  Gas planets aren't gaseous???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2007-03-29 00:35  

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