Cassini saw a persistent six-wave pattern in Saturn’s north-polar jet, not a solid-sided storm. What keeps it going? 🪐
Saturn’s hexagon
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Rotating-tank experiments made polygons in sheared fluid. A model proposes six planetary waves trapped in the jet could move with it, seeming still. 🔬
Saturn’s hexagon
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Cassini winds fit possible jet instability. Gravity data inspired another idea: smaller cyclones pinch a deep jet upward into a hexagon. 🌀
Saturn’s hexagon
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Later simulations made a polygon with nine edges, not Saturn’s six. No proposal explains how the observed hexagon is maintained; the question remains open. 🌌
Cassini recorded the pattern; experiments and models test ideas, but later research has not explained how it endures. 🪐