{"id":1039652,"date":"2026-09-02T22:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T22:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1039652\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T22:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T22:15:15","slug":"a-giant-hexagon-has-been-spinning-at-saturns-north-pole-for-decades-now-scientists-found-its-twin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1039652\/","title":{"rendered":"A Giant Hexagon Has Been Spinning at Saturn\u2019s North Pole for Decades. Now, Scientists Found Its Twin"},"content":{"rendered":"

When NASA\u2019s Voyager spacecraft flew past Saturn in 1980, it spotted something unlike anything scientists had seen before: a colossal, six-sided storm swirling around the planet\u2019s north pole<\/a>. The strange hexagon has persisted for decades, becoming one of Saturn\u2019s most mysterious features. But now, astronomers may have found something even more surprising\u2014a similar pattern emerging on the opposite side of the planet.<\/p>\n

Images captured by the Hubble space telescope revealed a growing decagon-shaped wave around Saturn\u2019s south pole. The 10-sided storm appears to have developed between 2023 and 2025 and may be evolving to this today, unlike its counterpart that has remained stable for more than 40 years.\u00a0The new discovery is detailed in a paper<\/a> published Wednesday in Science Advances.<\/p>\n

A storm is brewing <\/p>\n

Saturn\u2019s hexagonal storm is one of the most captivating features of the gas giant. Scientists first observed the six-sided vortex in 1988 when reviewing data from Voyager\u2019s flyby of Saturn. The spacecraft\u2019s trajectories prevented them from capturing the entire hexagon, which is twice as wide as Earth.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until years later when the Cassini spacecraft arrived at Saturn that scientists were able to observe the massive storm in all its glory. The storm is around 20,000 to 25,000 miles (30,000 to 32,000 kilometers) across, with jet streams extending about 180 to 200 miles (300 km) above the cloud tops.<\/p>\n

\"Pia21327A view of Saturn\u2019s hexagonal polar jet stream. Credit: Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute <\/p>\n

Due to its long-term stability, scientists expected to find a similar wave that had formed in one of the two subpolar jets in Saturn\u2019s southern hemisphere. Despite decades of searching, no other wave was detected in the planet\u2019s south pole or elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Due to Saturn\u2019s tilted axis, its south pole was not visible from Earth beginning in 2012. It wasn\u2019t until 2023 that scientists were able to see the planet\u2019s southern hemisphere. In October of that same year, Hubble images first revealed a 10-sided polygonal structure in Saturn\u2019s south pole. As the southern hemisphere came more into view, the decagon shape became more visible in August 2024.<\/p>\n

A year later, Hubble images showed the 10 corners of the decagon becoming fully developed. Three sides of the decagon were very prominent, four were less prominent, while the remaining three were less defined, according to the study.<\/p>\n

Twin storm <\/p>\n

The observations suggest that the decagonal storm developed recently and is still growing. Unlike its northern hemisphere counterpart, the longitudes of the decagon\u2019s vertices shift back and forth over a roughly 32-day cycle. Their movement suggests that the strange 10-sided shape may not be a rigid structure at all but rather a meandering atmospheric wave, held in place by the curved path of a powerful jet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese properties in the movement of the decagon indicate the existence of a complex dynamical behavior, never observed in the hexagon, becoming a subject that deserves future attention,\u201d the authors wrote in the paper.<\/p>\n

To better understand how the decagon formed, the researchers used shallow-water model simulations to recreate its behavior. Their results suggest that the shape could have emerged from a repeating disturbance along the jet\u2019s peak\u2014or perhaps been driven by a large, counterclockwise-rotating vortex to its north.<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s the case, the decagon could be a transient, evolving phenomenon, whereas the hexagon is a robust wave that has remained stable for decades despite nearby storm activity. The new discovery provides new insight into how storms form and evolve on different worlds and adds more intrigue to a 40-year-old mystery that has persisted on Saturn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When NASA\u2019s Voyager spacecraft flew past Saturn in 1980, it spotted something unlike anything scientists had seen before:…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1039653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[4514,63210,159,161,67,132,68,104491],"class_list":["post-1039652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-astronomy","tag-saturn","tag-science","tag-solar-system","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-voyager-1"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117203759110704914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1039652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1039653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1039652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1039652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1039652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}