At first glance, it looks like a serene planet. However, stunning new images reveals the massive hexagonal storm at Saturn's the North Pole, and its gigantic rings that have fascinated astronomers for 30 years. Each latitudinal band represents air flowing at different speeds, and clouds at different heights, compared to neighboring bands.
According to Space the hexagonal cloud first discovered by Voyagers 1 and 2 more than 30 years ago. The structure, which contains a churning storm at its center, is about 20,000 miles wide and thermal images show that it reaches roughly 60 miles down into Saturn's atmosphere.
Voyager and Cassini did identify many features of this strange hexagon that could help explain how it formed. A brief Photo analysis by Mail Online, scientists believe that it is formed by winds, similar to our own arctic jet stream, racing eastwards around the pole at cloud level and being jostled into shape by other winds below it.
The points of the hexagon rotate around its center at almost exactly the same rate Saturn rotates on its axis. The jet stream air current much like the ones seen on Earth and flows eastward at up to about 220mph on Saturn. Now researchers have developed a model they suggest matches the hexagon's features better than previous attempts.
Lead author Raúl Morales-Juberías, a planetary scientist said with a very simple model, they have been able to match many of the observed properties of the hexagon. Now scientists were baffled about why the shaped formed because it did not appear to be influenced by seasons and there were many explanations put forward.
The new findings have suggested that the winds beneath the jet stream are responsible for jostling this air current into its geometric shape. This helps to explain why the hexagon is not influenced by seasonal changes, said the researchers. It is hoped that by studying the movement of the hexagon it may be possible to understand more about the winds that are hidden beneath the stormy clouds in the gas giant's upper atmosphere.
