Thursday, March 29, 2007

Saturn's got some strange weather.

A bizarre six-sided feature encircling the north pole of Saturn is pictured by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, in this image released by NASA March 27, 2007. This image is one of the first clear images ever taken of the north polar region as seen from a unique polar perspective and was originally discovered and last observed by a spacecraft during NASA's Voyager flybys of the early 1980's. The new views of the polar hexagon taken in late 2006 prove that this is an unusually long-lived feature on Saturn. This image is the first to capture the entire feature and was taken October 29, 2006. REUTERS/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/Handout. EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. NO SALES.



How strange is this? 

There's a hexagonal storm swirling around on Saturn.  I don't even know how this is possible, and the article I read didn't have any physics to explain it.



Of course, then there's this on the other side:







As the article says, this is "freak, one-eyed monster storm" that's raging on the opposite pole from the hexagonal storm.



Truly, this is a bizarre planet.











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