¿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2020 July 5 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Saturn's Northern Hexagon Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]JPL, [6]SSI, [7]Cassini Imaging Team Explanation: Why would clouds form a hexagon on Saturn? Nobody is sure. Originally discovered during the [8]Voyager flybys of Saturn in the 1980s, nobody has ever seen anything like it anywhere else in the [9]Solar System. Acquiring its first sunlit views of far northern [10]Saturn in late 2012, the Cassini spacecraft's wide-angle camera recorded this [11]stunning, false-color image of the ringed planet's north pole. The composite of near-infrared image data results in red hues for low clouds and green for high ones, giving the [12]Saturnian cloudscape a vivid appearance. This and similar images show the stability of the [13]hexagon even 20+ years after Voyager. [14]Movies of Saturn's North Pole show the cloud structure maintaining its [15]hexagonal structure while rotating. Unlike individual clouds appearing like a [16]hexagon on Earth, the Saturn [17]cloud pattern appears to have [18]six well defined sides of nearly equal length. Four [19]Earths could fit inside the [20]hexagon. Beyond the cloud tops at the upper right, arcs of the planet's [21]eye-catching rings appear bright blue. Tomorrow's picture: deep hunter __________________________________________________________________ [22]< | [23]Archive | [24]Submissions | [25]Index | [26]Search | [27]Calendar | [28]RSS | [29]Education | [30]About APOD | [31]Discuss | [32]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [33]Robert Nemiroff ([34]MTU) & [35]Jerry Bonnell ([36]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [37]Specific rights apply. [38]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [39]ASD at [40]NASA / [41]GSFC & [42]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2007/NorthSaturn_Cassini_1009.jpg 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. https://www.esa.int/ 5. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ 6. https://www.spacescience.org/ 7. http://ciclops.org/ 8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1 9. http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/ 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121204.html 11. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14946 12. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/saturn/overview/ 13. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Hexagon.html 14. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09187 15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn%27s_hexagon 16. https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/59758/hexagonal-cloud-cells-in-south-atlantic-ocean 17. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-20070327.html 18. http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2010/2471.html 19. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0610/earthlights02_dmsp_big.jpg 20. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexagon 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap131021.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200704.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 31. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200705 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200706.html 33. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 34. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 35. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 36. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 37. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 38. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 39. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 40. https://www.nasa.gov/ 41. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 42. http://www.mtu.edu/