NASAs Cassini spacecraft has imaged a bizarre hexagon shaped feature covering the entire north pole of Saturn.
This feature was also imaged by NASAs Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts two decades ago. This means that the feature is a long-lived one. Cassini has also shown another darker feature that is also of the same shape. Cassini’s visual and infrared mapping spectrometer is the first instrument to capture the entire hexagon feature in one image.
The hexagon can be compared to the polar vertex on Earth that has winds blowing in circular fashion, but the same feature on Saturn has acquired the shape of a hexagon. The feature is nearly 25,000 kilometers across this means that it is so big that nearly four Earth’s can fit inside it.
The feature also extends much deeper than previously expected. It has a depth of more than 100 kilometers with a system of clouds whipping across the hexagon like cars on a racetrack.
The feature is not yet visible to Cassini’s visual cameras, because the North Pole of the planet is engulfed in a long Polar night which lasts about 15 years, but since Cassini is equipped with infrared mapping spectrometer it can image the planet in both day and night conditions.
Image Credit: NASA
Via: scienceblog
