http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/bizarrehexagonspottedonsaturn;_ylt=AqW.NHjwD3De38KnE4mkNcas0NUE
Above is the link. Apparently these clouds had been seen before by the Voyagers, though this is the first I've heard of them. I thought straight lines were rare in nature, especially in clouds, and how has it lasted so long? I'm not saying it's extraterrestrials or anything, but I am perplexed.
2007-03-28 05:55:45 · 9 answers · asked by Chance20_m 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Aside from size and scale issues...I think there's one thing folks haven't brought up.
Saturn is a gas giant that is very *cold*. Those clouds in that pic aren't clouds of *water ice*, they are most likely clouds of methane (a.k.a. natural gas) or hydrogen droplets (or even crystals). Meaning...?
The planet has a very cold, and very deep atmosphere with really high pressures courtesy of Saturn's deeper gravity well. Hydrocarbons like methane tend to break down under the high pressure *combined with* the cryogenic cold and active hydrogen present. And hydrogen gas itself behaves *very* strangely when it gets cold enough to liquify, and even more so when it gets cold enough to solidify.
We've already inferred that Jupiter, the next *nearest* planet to the Sun and Earth, has a whole *core* of solid, frozen, *metallic* hydrogen....and Saturn is much colder, and has a more solid core. So...
I'd humbly suggest that the *cloud* in the pic is a *snow* cloud of sorts, composed mainly of particles of hydrogen gas frozen into "snowflakes", and that the hexagonal shape is courtesy of hydrogen's behaving as a *metal* when it freezes.
Of course, all of this is inference and speculation, it isn't like we are there, and even the probes and their gear can mess up...but yeah...that is my best guess.
I hope this helps, and thanks for your time! ^_^
2007-03-28 06:16:42 · answer #1 · answered by Bradley P 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
First of all, it is clear that the lines are not straight lines since they are on a sphere. Second, the corners of that hexagon are not pointy, they are clearly rounded. This leads me to think that there is some sort of resonance phenomenon, probably between the length of the side of the hexagon and the velocity of sound in the atmosphere. The real question is why those frequencies are subdued which are not 6 times the time it takes for a wave to 'go around the planet'. Another question is why there isn't a 12-sided polygon at a different latitude.
Anyway, this phenomenon definitely looks like a fourier approximation to a hexagon rather than a hexagon. Just my 2 cents.
2007-03-28 13:47:37 · answer #2 · answered by mathematician 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Based on a video on the site, It seems to me that the hexagon might actually be a weather area forming perhaps on the pole of Saturn. Think "Great Red Spot" and "Great Dark Spot" and you might get what Im saying.
2007-03-28 16:48:13 · answer #3 · answered by iam"A"godofsheep 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I really dont think that they are "Straight lines". keep in mind that the size of saturn means that the lines would have to be thousands upon thousands of miles long, so in the small photographs, the large lines would show as being, what maybe a few inches at the most? so they would appear infact straight when in reality they arent.
For the cause, saturn has a complex weather system not totally understood by us. Especially by me lol.
2007-03-28 13:00:45 · answer #4 · answered by anthony 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Honeycomb cells are the same shape, as are bubbles when surrounded by six other bubbles. (Unless the six bubbles surround the one in three dimensions, in which case you can get a cube.)
It'll probably turn out to be due to some formation of weather systems that have settled into a honeycomb-like arrangement. The borders between them naturally settling into straight-ish lines.
2007-03-28 13:12:45 · answer #5 · answered by John's Secret Identity™ 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Bizarre all right, and if they had a solid theory I'd say they'd have mentioned it on that page.
There is so much that we do not know in planetary mechanics, but it will have a completely natural explication when we do eventually understand it.
2007-03-28 13:05:37 · answer #6 · answered by Graham B 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
It was found at the pole so combining rotational phenomena and the weather and winds on Saturn, it'll be fun to see what they conclude. Why do I smell another fairy tale conspiracy coming out of this one ?
2007-03-28 13:05:19 · answer #7 · answered by Gene 7 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Nobody knows yet.
2007-03-28 13:00:57 · answer #8 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
It's really cool. I think it's aliens. :)
2007-03-28 12:58:41 · answer #9 · answered by searching_please 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋