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“Saturn has a hexagon at the north pole,” said Bolton. “There is nothing on Jupiter that anywhere near resembles that. The largest planet in our solar system is

by jobu 10y ago

“Saturn has a hexagon at the north pole,” said Bolton. “There is nothing on Jupiter that anywhere near resembles that. The largest planet in our solar system is truly unique. We have 36 more flybys to study just how unique it really is.” This is the first I've heard of Saturn's hexagon, very interesting: http://www.space.com/30608-mysterious-saturn-hexagon-explained.html http://www.space.com/30608-mysterious-saturn-hexagon-explain...

apaprocki 10y ago
Some threads I read on another site described it as perturbations of a periodic wave moving around the pole in a circle.. modeled something like this: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+x%5E2+%2B+y%5E2+%3D+1+%2B+0.07*sin(+6*atan2(x,y) http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+x%5E2+%2B+y%5E2+%3...) or http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=r+%3D+1+%2B+cos(6*theta)%2F30 http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=r+%3D+1+%2B+cos(6*theta...
- 3pt14159 10y ago
  Doesn't seem to hold up to a sensitivity analysis as much as one would expect given how long it has remained stable.
SilasX 10y ago
>The largest planet in our solar system is truly unique. Hold on -- how much do we know about the poles of gas giants in other solar systems? I'm guessing we can't get a good look or anything... Edit: added quote to clarify what I was responding to.
- undersuit 10y ago
  Saturn has a tilt just a bit more than the Earth and it experiences seasons; the pole is rotated something like 26 degrees into our field of vision in "winter". Uranus is actually rotating on it's side. http://www.setterfield.org/Astronomy/pictures/axial-tilt-planets.jpg http://www.setterfield.org/Astronomy/pictures/axial-tilt-pla...
  - tome 10y ago
    "other solar systems"
    - undersuit 10y ago
      The answer is we don't. Unlike the other three gas giants in the Solar System we can't see Jupiter's pole clearly. So Jupiter is unique to our solar system, and we don't know much about the visual details of exoplanets.
      - perseusprime11 10y ago
        Is Jupiter all gas or does it have any mass? It is hard for m kind to imagine a big ball of gas looking like a planet and going around the sun
        Sanddancer 10y ago
        Jupiter is almost all hydrogen. However, the bulk of that hydrogen is actually liquid. Its core has compressed the hydrogen so much that it's ionized and is essentially a metal.
        grkvlt 10y ago
        The thing is, there's a lot of gas, which like any other matter, has mass. So, even though a hydrogen atom is the lightest element possible, and we think of hydrogen gas a being light, that's just relative to other things. At a human scale, it isn't possible to have that much of the stuff around. But you can always go and collect a lot of it; in fact if you get ten to the power twenty seven kilograms of the stuff, and put it in one place, gravity will shape it into a sphere that looks very like Jupiter. Or, get 1000 times as much as that, and watch as gravity squeezes it so much it begins to fuse into helium at the centre - you'll have a star the size of our Sun...!
- ngoldbaum 10y ago
  We know basically nothing about the details of cloud structure on exoplanets.
  - SilasX 10y ago
    Then it's kind of a stretch to call Jupiter "truly unique" in this respect, isn't it? "Wow, only a quarter of known gas giants are like this!"
    - acupofnope 10y ago
      Yes. What's the point you're trying to make? (genuine question)
      - SilasX 10y ago
        To express skepticism about >The largest planet in our solar system is truly unique.
        visakanv 10y ago
        Since we're in the business of nitpicking – unique means one of a kind, so the "truly" is redundant. That said, there are so many planets in the Universe that it's practically impossible for any single one to be unique – the term is being used here not in a technically accurate way, but in a loose, "I want you to be impressed" sense.
        elbear 10y ago
        Well, if you think about it, there aren't two planets which are 100% alike, so each planet can be called unique.
        visakanv 10y ago
        That's true, but in which case the term ceases to be useful!
brianpgordon 10y ago
Does Saturn have an identical cloud pattern on its south pole? I always hear about the north pole, but without geographic features wouldn't there be symmetry between the north and south poles?
- simcop2387 10y ago
  Not quite, but there's definitely something strange there. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081027.html http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081027.html
JohnHammersley 10y ago
"This is the first I've heard of Saturn's hexagon, very interesting" Yes, me too -- thanks for posting your reply and the link, I've now learnt something new today (and it's only 00:45 so that's a good start to the weekend!).

by jobu 10y ago

apaprocki 10y ago

Some threads I read on another site described it as perturbations of a periodic wave moving around the pole in a circle.. modeled something like this: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+x%5E2+%2B+y%5E2+%3D+1+%2B+0.07*sin(+6*atan2(x,y) http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+x%5E2+%2B+y%5E2+%3...) or http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=r+%3D+1+%2B+cos(6*theta)%2F30 http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=r+%3D+1+%2B+cos(6*theta...

3pt14159 10y ago
Doesn't seem to hold up to a sensitivity analysis as much as one would expect given how long it has remained stable.

SilasX 10y ago

>The largest planet in our solar system is truly unique. Hold on -- how much do we know about the poles of gas giants in other solar systems? I'm guessing we can't get a good look or anything... Edit: added quote to clarify what I was responding to.

undersuit 10y ago
Saturn has a tilt just a bit more than the Earth and it experiences seasons; the pole is rotated something like 26 degrees into our field of vision in "winter". Uranus is actually rotating on it's side. http://www.setterfield.org/Astronomy/pictures/axial-tilt-planets.jpg http://www.setterfield.org/Astronomy/pictures/axial-tilt-pla...
- tome 10y ago
  "other solar systems"
  - undersuit 10y ago
    The answer is we don't. Unlike the other three gas giants in the Solar System we can't see Jupiter's pole clearly. So Jupiter is unique to our solar system, and we don't know much about the visual details of exoplanets.
    - perseusprime11 10y ago
      Is Jupiter all gas or does it have any mass? It is hard for m kind to imagine a big ball of gas looking like a planet and going around the sun
      - Sanddancer 10y ago
        Jupiter is almost all hydrogen. However, the bulk of that hydrogen is actually liquid. Its core has compressed the hydrogen so much that it's ionized and is essentially a metal.
      - grkvlt 10y ago
        The thing is, there's a lot of gas, which like any other matter, has mass. So, even though a hydrogen atom is the lightest element possible, and we think of hydrogen gas a being light, that's just relative to other things. At a human scale, it isn't possible to have that much of the stuff around. But you can always go and collect a lot of it; in fact if you get ten to the power twenty seven kilograms of the stuff, and put it in one place, gravity will shape it into a sphere that looks very like Jupiter. Or, get 1000 times as much as that, and watch as gravity squeezes it so much it begins to fuse into helium at the centre - you'll have a star the size of our Sun...!
ngoldbaum 10y ago
We know basically nothing about the details of cloud structure on exoplanets.
- SilasX 10y ago
  Then it's kind of a stretch to call Jupiter "truly unique" in this respect, isn't it? "Wow, only a quarter of known gas giants are like this!"
  - acupofnope 10y ago
    Yes. What's the point you're trying to make? (genuine question)
    - SilasX 10y ago
      To express skepticism about >The largest planet in our solar system is truly unique.
      - visakanv 10y ago
        Since we're in the business of nitpicking – unique means one of a kind, so the "truly" is redundant. That said, there are so many planets in the Universe that it's practically impossible for any single one to be unique – the term is being used here not in a technically accurate way, but in a loose, "I want you to be impressed" sense.
        elbear 10y ago
        Well, if you think about it, there aren't two planets which are 100% alike, so each planet can be called unique.
        visakanv 10y ago
        That's true, but in which case the term ceases to be useful!

brianpgordon 10y ago

Does Saturn have an identical cloud pattern on its south pole? I always hear about the north pole, but without geographic features wouldn't there be symmetry between the north and south poles?

simcop2387 10y ago
Not quite, but there's definitely something strange there. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081027.html http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081027.html

JohnHammersley 10y ago

"This is the first I've heard of Saturn's hexagon, very interesting" Yes, me too -- thanks for posting your reply and the link, I've now learnt something new today (and it's only 00:45 so that's a good start to the weekend!).