Saturnian Hex

After almost thirty years shrouded in darkness, Saturn's mysterious hexagon comes into view

Named after the Roman god of agriculture and the namesake of "Saturday," Saturn is an oddball planet in our Solar System.

It is the only one with rings.

It is the only one less dense than water.

Titan, the largest of its 61 moons, in the only moon in the Solar System with a substantial atmosphere.

But there is one enigmatic feature of Saturn that has long puzzled scientists: It has a jet stream that follows a hexagonal-shaped path on the planet's surface.

"The hexagon was hidden in darkness during the winter of Saturn's long year, a year that is equal to about 29 Earth years," according to a NASA press release.

"But as the planet approached its August 2009 equinox and signaled the start of northern spring, the hexagon was revealed to Cassini's cameras. This is the first time the whole hexagonal shape has been mapped out in visible light by Cassini, and these images show unprecedented details of Saturn's high northern latitudes."

The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was inserted into Saturn's orbit in July of 2004. It has since been making detailed observations the planet and Titan.

"The six-sided shape remains a mystery," the release states.

"Scientists think the hexagon is a meandering jet stream at 77 degrees north latitude, but they don't know what controls the path the stream takes."

GET INVOLVED

• Watch the Cassini video of the mysterious hexagon
• Download this month's free night sky map and calendar from Skymaps.com
• See what's in the sky tonight
• Download Google Earth 5.0, which includes an interactive map of the surface of Mars
• Buy a beginner telescope from the Discovery Channel store
• Sign a petition to add the option for US taxpayers to contribute to NASA on the IRS 1040 tax form

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• Empire of the Sun (August 7, 2009)
• Where Stars Are Born (July 16, 2009)
• Goodbye Ulysses (June 30, 2009)
• An Old Lake on the Red Planet (June 20, 2009)
• It's the End of the World As We Know It (June 12, 2009)
• Getting Closer to the Beginning of Time (May 16, 2009)
• A Possible New World Fit for Life (April 28, 2009)
• Sizing Up the "King of the World" (March 31, 2009)

image: still from a movie made by the Cassini spacecraft shows new details of a jet stream that follows a hexagon-shaped path and has long puzzled scientists. (credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)