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Astronomy

The Mysterious Behaviour of Saturn's Hexagonal Polar Jet Stream

Quick fact

Saturn's north pole hosts a nearly perfect hexagonal jet stream about 30,000 kilometres across, with sides longer than Earth's diameter. It was first seen by Voyager in 1981 and still puzzles scientists: the hexagon has remained stable for over three decades, rotating with a period of about 10.5 hours, matching the planet's internal rotation.

Why this is interesting

Imagine a hurricane on Earth that, instead of a swirling vortex, shapes itself into a perfect hexagon. Saturn's north pole hosts a jet stream that behaves like that—what could possibly create such a geometric mystery?