Dear Friends,
Way cool image.
Love and Light.
David
Image 1 of 88
9 December 2009
Previously unseen walls and curlicues in a mysterious hexagon-shaped feature on Saturn's north pole are revealed in this new image by the Cassini spacecraft.
The strange hexagonal structure, which spans a distance wider than two Earths, has remained largely unchanged since it was first discovered by NASA's Voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s. Cassini snapped this image earlier this year, as winter in Saturn's northern hemisphere came to a close, and the region was once again illuminated by sunlight.
A jet stream is thought to whip around the hexagon at 100 metres per second, but scientists are still not sure what gives rise to the long-lived shape, or where it gets and releases its energy.
(Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)
9 December 2009
Previously unseen walls and curlicues in a mysterious hexagon-shaped feature on Saturn's north pole are revealed in this new image by the Cassini spacecraft.
The strange hexagonal structure, which spans a distance wider than two Earths, has remained largely unchanged since it was first discovered by NASA's Voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s. Cassini snapped this image earlier this year, as winter in Saturn's northern hemisphere came to a close, and the region was once again illuminated by sunlight.
A jet stream is thought to whip around the hexagon at 100 metres per second, but scientists are still not sure what gives rise to the long-lived shape, or where it gets and releases its energy.
(Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)
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