Thursday, November 28, 2013

Mysterious Hexagon on the Planet Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Named after the Roman god of agriculture, Saturn. Saturn is probably best known for the system of planetary rings that makes it visually unique. But there is also another unique and wonderful matter about this planet " The Mysterious Hexagon".





This mysterious hexagon is a persisting hexagonal cloud pattern around the north pole of Saturn. The sides of the hexagon are about 13,800 km (8,600 mi) long, which is longer than the Earth's diameter.The hexagon was originally discovered in images taken by the Voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s.

The hexagon, according to NASA, is 60 miles thick (deep) and an astonishing 15,000 miles wide.That means four Earths would fit inside it. Nasa’s Cassini spacecraft, which has been orbiting the planet for over nine years, has captured the northern hexagon in its true, incredible colours. The hexagon is made of a band of upper-atmospheric winds which creates its six-sided shape. A polar cyclone can be seen at its centre. Thin, bright clouds at the outer edge of the hurricane were estimated to be travelling at around 330 mph (150 meters per second).

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