Mysterious hexagon spotted above Saturn

[madanthonywayne]

This is pretty wierd:
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.
Check out the picture on the link:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=445117&in_page_id=1965

[Mosheh Thezion]

FASCINATING.................!

6 sides....

-MT

[James R]

I remember hearing about this years ago - probably from some other spacecraft photo. It was all the rage on nutty websites for a while. The guy who publicised the "Face on Mars" built an entire nutball physics theory around it.

Having said that, it is interesting. Sounds like the jury is still out on what causes it.

[nietzschefan]

I just saw this in the paper. WOW. How the hell could that naturally occur???

[phlogistician]

I just saw this in the paper. WOW. How the hell could that naturally occur???

It can't obviously, it's the product of alien mind rays, ... :D

[Communist Hamster]

It is quite possible that spherical harmonics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_harmonics) causes it. You can get some weird effects with it, and this pattern on Saturn seems to show the hallmarks of spherical harmonics.

[Yorda]

there's nothing weird about that, hexagons exist everywhere in nature, like in snowflakes and honeycombs.

[nietzschefan]

Well it's got to have something to do with the magnetic field of Saturn right?

[Singularity]

there's nothing weird about that, hexagons exist everywhere in nature, like in snowflakes and honeycombs.

The problem here is that no one knows why its here.

Now, we never saw anything hexagonal with relation to magnets.

BTW, isnt saturn a gaseous planet ?

[madanthonywayne]

there's nothing weird about that, hexagons exist everywhere in nature, like in snowflakes and honeycombs.
Sure, but nothing on this scale.

[Yorda]

Now, we never saw anything hexagonal with relation to magnets.

yes we do: snowflakes, they consist of magnetic particles called protons, electrons and neutrons. magnets have only two poles, but because snowflakes consist of so many magnets, they usually create at least 6 branches, which makes the hexagonal form.

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/3697/lkjlk2kn5.gif

[The Devil Inside]

i have a hexagonal tattoo on my right forearm...saturn is just trying to copy me because im so cool.

[Singularity]

yes we do: snowflakes, they consist of magnetic particles called protons, electrons and neutrons. magnets have only two poles, but because snowflakes consist of so many magnets, they usually create at least 6 branches, which makes the hexagonal form.

http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/3697/lkjlk2kn5.gif

So u mean to say that its a giant Snowflake ?

[Yorda]

So u mean to say that its a giant Snowflake ?

no, but it's governed by the same power, magnetism. saturn is spherical, so it needs to create 12 concentrated magnetic lines, but because they're attracted to each other, they merge into only two, and they can't merge completely because of the repulsion between them.

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/2125/saturnpolesyy7.gif

[spidergoat]

no, but it's governed by the same power, magnetism. saturn is spherical, so it needs to create 12 concentrated magnetic lines, but because they're attracted to each other, they merge into only two, and they can't merge completely because of the repulsion between them.

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/2125/saturnpolesyy7.gif
That does sound plausable. Why do bees make hexagonal combs?

Speaking of wax,

Formation of bands and ridges on Europa by cyclic deformation: Insights from analogue wax experiments

Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA

Abstract
We perform a set of analogue wax experiments aimed at understanding the processes and conditions that lead to lineament formation on Europa. We heat a layer of wax from below and cool it from above so that a solid layer of wax forms above a molten layer, simulating either the liquid ocean or the actively convecting part of the ice shell. The solid layer of wax is then deformed periodically, simulating the cyclic strain caused by tides or by the satellite's nonsynchronous rotation. We find that the formation and morphology of lineaments that develop in the solid wax layer are governed by two main dimensionless parameters: Ψ, the ratio of the cooling timescale for the solid layer to the deformation timescale, and the dilation quotient γ, which is defined as the magnitude of net extension during one cycle of deformation divided by the amplitude of the periodic deformation. For Ψ ∼ 1, features form that qualitatively resemble bands and ridge complexes on Europa. We conclude that diurnal tides may be responsible for the formation of bands on Europa if the conducting layer of ice is a few hundred meters thick and is underlain by a convecting layer of ice. Features resembling double ridges can form if the ice shell has a thickness of a few kilometers and periodic strains are caused by Europa's nonsynchronous rotation.

http://images.spaceref.com/news/2006/154718main_pia08660-330.jpg (http://www.marstoday.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=21798)
Astrobiology August 2006 issue: Seasonal Changes and Ice Melt on Mars Explain Spider Formations on Martian Surface (http://www.marstoday.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=21798)

Cold Fingers

Cracked ice. A jagged rectangular pattern sometimes forms when thin ice sheets floating on water collide (above, off the Antarctic coast), creating "fingers" that push over and under each other alternately. Physicists have now explained this phenomenon and demonstrated it with wax floating on water.

http://focus.aps.org/stories/v19/st6/pic-v19-st6-1.jpg (http://focus.aps.org/stories/v19/st6/big-1.jpg)

For more than half a century, scientists and polar explorers have puzzled over the origin of serrated zipper-like patterns that sometimes form when floating ice sheets collide. (http://focus.aps.org/story/v19/st6)

[Yorda]

Why do bees make hexagonal combs?

They just create lots of round holes which they pack together tight so that they become hexagonal, like bubbles (http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3513/hexbubblesyx8.jpg) in dishwater.

[Arch_Rival]

That is a gigantic Bernard Cell. http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/B/Bernard_system.html

Quite easily observed in experiments. Ilya Progogine mentioned it in Order out of Chaos

[MetaKron]

They just create lots of round holes which they pack together tight so that they become hexagonal, like bubbles (http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3513/hexbubblesyx8.jpg) in dishwater.


Take a look at the pictures on this Google image search. (http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=honeycomb&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2) All of the pictures show hexagons. They are built that way a tiny bit at a time and not deformed into that shape after being built, so it's hexagons that the bees build, not circles.

[domesticated om]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2007-034

Interesting.
I guess it isn't necessarily something 'solid' that's causing it huh? I mean - all were looking at is a huge blob of gas right? It's probably the result of some sort of force (like a gravitational influence, or physical influence)

[Nikelodeon]

Hexagon clouds over the South Atlantic

http://veimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/3350/SouthAtlantic.A2002157.1055.1km.jpg

http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=3350

[§outh§tar]

Those clouds are the product of aliens too! "We've never seen anything on that scale before! Let's make a hubbub and speculate over what those clouds are trying to tell us!"

[Nikelodeon]

I think the aliens are giant bees and they are slowly preparing this world for colonisation.

[orcot]

nah they got stoned on the hydrogen and where making planetary figures with a giant laser for fun.

[domesticated om]

nah they got stoned on the hydrogen and where making planetary figures with a giant laser for fun.

I disagree with this hypothesis. The aliens would most likely have opted for creating a giant "Tuff Gong" logo - in which case, the shape would have been a 6 sided star, and not a hexagon.

[orcot]

yeah but then found... amsterdam so they doodlet a little map for the next UFO
http://www.pacificislandtravel.com/about_pit/amsterdam-kantoorlokatie.jpg
... that kinda resembles a hexagram

[Nikelodeon]

http://www.sendmeamirror.com/products/511.jpg

[Reiku]

I wouldn't think too deeply about it. Winds, such as tornados have been known to go across crop fields and leave behind geometrical shapes. There is nothing special in all this. It only indicates that conditions on Saturn are extreemly bad.

[Captain Kremmen]

http://www.sendmeamirror.com/products/511.jpg

That's no mystery, I've seen them loads of times.
It's the top of a bolt.

[Medicine*Woman]

*************
M*W: I wonder what ancient humans thought it looked like? hmmmm...

[MacGyver1968]

i have a hexagonal tattoo on my right forearm...saturn is just trying to copy me because im so cool.

Lol!!!

[shichimenshyo]

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/765095/2/istockphoto_765095_adjustable_wrench_illustration. jpg


It just needs to be tightened down

[Reiku]

lol

[MetaKron]

I don't think that Nickelodeon's hexagon is a real object. It is definitely not the stop of a bolt. It's too smooth.

[Orleander]

*************
M*W: I wonder what ancient humans thought it looked like? hmmmm...

could they have seen it??

[Exhumed]

Interesting.

Anyway...the dailymail, eh? :)

[cat2only]

Hurricane Ivan had a Pentagon eye formation

http://www.franklyspeakingradio.com/H5.jpg

[Medicine*Woman]

could they have seen it??
*************
M*W: I don't know if they saw it, but I still wonder what they made it out to be. What do you think? An ancient stop sign? Or an ancient geomatric symbol? Maybe it's an ancient honeycomb? Or maybe it's an ancient snowflake? I really don't know, but I do know it's an ancient myth... whatever it is.

[Captain Kremmen]

Hexagon clouds over the South Atlantic

http://veimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/3350/SouthAtlantic.A2002157.1055.1km.jpg


Fluffy white bolts.

[Vega]

Something strange is happening in and around Saturn which is definitely not natural!

[The Devil Inside]

Lol!!!

dude, saturn is always copying me.

[River Ape]

The story was meant to appear on April 1st but was accidentally run three days early.
The photo is the top of a chocolate blancmange.
(Anyway, at the Daily Mail it's always All Fools Day!)

[Cortex_Colossus]

It is quite possible that spherical harmonics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_harmonics) causes it. You can get some weird effects with it, and this pattern on Saturn seems to show the hallmarks of spherical harmonics.

There's a big fuckin difference between orthogonal shapes and polygonal shapes. The former is relegated to right angled shapes only.

[[a-5]]

Haha, that's freaking cool!

[Gently Passing]

I just saw this in the paper. WOW. How the hell could that naturally occur???

Hexagons are the most stable shape for cyclic compounds, so why is it so hard to believe that a hexagonal orientation of clouds is somehow unnatural. I'm not even surprised by this finding considering the inherent stability of the structure.

Is it beautiful? Yes. Reflective of the complex interactions and interwoven layers of order in the universe? Oh yah. Somehow spiritual or alien in nature, or otherwise unnatural? Definitely not.

Why is that one sock always missing when you pull the clothes out of the dryer?

:shrug:

[Captain Kremmen]

The current theory, and the most plausible is that it the result of a steady sound frequency vibrating the planet. If so, this would truly be the " music of the spheres" at work.


This is an interesting film, a little new-age, which will not be to everyone's taste, but you will all like the visuals, and Holst's music is very stirring.
http://www.tjmitchell.com/stuart/rosslyn.html

The bit about the carving in Rosslyn Chapel may look like a far stretch of the imagination, but in fact people have for many years likened some of the carvings in the chapel to the shapes you get when you sound a note through a tray of sand.

http://www.tjmitchell.com/stuart/rosslyn.html

[MetaKron]

I think the resonance theory is a lot more plausible than an artificial construct largely because it probably wouldn't occur to anyone to make the hole in the top of Saturn a hexagon.