Bizarre Hexagon Spotted on Saturn


	Bizarre Hexagon Spotted on Saturn

invictus

3-28-2007 10:59 AM

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tags:

astronomy, solar system, planets, saturn

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3-29-2007 9:36 AM

dorine

So?

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/0fee95f9-494d-4755-b6b8-0ccb01ab30a4/BB712C90-A7B5-4D72-8A1C-D91E4A6CF649/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://spaceweather.com/" href="http://spaceweather.com/" style="font-size: 11px;">spaceweather.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://spaceweather.com/"><P align="left"><FONT size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#ff0000"><STRONG>BIZARRE 
                        HEXAGON: </STRONG></FONT><FONT size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
                        "We've never seen anything like it on any other planet," 
                        says atmospheric scientist Kevin Baines of the Jet Propulsion 
                        Laboratory. <EM>It</EM> is <A href="http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2552">a 
                        hexagon</A> twice as wide as Earth encircling Saturn's 
                        north pole. First observed by the Voyager spacecraft in 
                        the 1980s, the hexagon has been sighted anew by the Cassini 
                        probe: </FONT>
                      </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://spaceweather.com/"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/spaceweather.com/img/4EA42EED-7D17-4A28-A94A-E436D3171BD6" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://spaceweather.com/"><P align="left"><FONT size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In 
                        this infrared photo taken by Cassini's <A href="http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu/">VIMS</A> 
                        camera, </FONT><FONT size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">the 
                        blue color traces auroras at high altitudes in Saturn's 
                        atmosphere. Red indicates the amount heat filtering up 
                        through clouds below. Researchers believe the auroras 
                        and the hexagon are unrelated. </FONT>
                      </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://spaceweather.com/"><FONT size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The 
                        hexagon could be a distant cousin of Earth's <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_vortex">polar 
                        vortex</A>, but while Earth's vortex is a circle, Saturn's 
                        may be molded into a hexagon by some <A href="http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060515/full/060515-17.html">strange 
                        pattern</A> of atmospheric waves. "Saturn's thick 
                        atmosphere where circularly-shaped waves and convective 
                        cells dominate is perhaps the last place you'd expect 
                        to see such a six-sided geometric figure," says Baines. 
                        In short, it's a mystery.</FONT></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/BB712C90-A7B5-4D72-8A1C-D91E4A6CF649/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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