Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Science
Related: About this forum
9 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Saturn's North Pole (Original Post)
BootinUp
18 hrs ago
OP
lark
(26,001 posts)1. WOW!!
chicoescuela
(2,911 posts)2. Love the science. Very cool
patphil
(8,897 posts)3. Both amazing, and beautiful.
On Earth, hurricanes have been known to have a pentagonal shaped eye.
https://www.planetary.org/space-images/hurricane-isabels-pentagonal-eye
I've read that they could have square, ore even hexagonal eyes, but couldn't find an example.
2naSalit
(101,499 posts)4. Amazing!
erronis
(23,349 posts)5. As always, some reference links are helpful. Here's the Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn%27s_hexagon
Explanations for hexagon shape
False-color image from the Cassini probe of the central vortex deep inside the hexagon formation
An early hypothesis attributed the hexagon to Rossby waves.[21]
A hypothesis developed at Oxford University is the hexagon forms where there is a steep latitudinal gradient in the speed of the atmospheric winds in Saturn's atmosphere.[22] Similar regular shapes were created in a laboratory when a circular tank of liquid was rotated at different speeds at its centre and periphery. The most common shape was six sided, but shapes with three to eight sides were also produced. The shapes form in an area of turbulent flow between the two different rotating fluid bodies with dissimilar speeds.[22][23] A number of stable vortices of similar size form on the slower (south) side of the fluid boundary, and these interact with each other to space themselves out evenly around the perimeter. The presence of the vortices influences the boundary to move northward where each is present, and this gives rise to the polygon effect.[23] Polygons do not form at wind boundaries unless the speed differential and viscosity parameters are within certain margins and thus absent at other likely places, such as Saturn's south pole or the poles of Jupiter.
False-color image from the Cassini probe of the central vortex deep inside the hexagon formation
An early hypothesis attributed the hexagon to Rossby waves.[21]
A hypothesis developed at Oxford University is the hexagon forms where there is a steep latitudinal gradient in the speed of the atmospheric winds in Saturn's atmosphere.[22] Similar regular shapes were created in a laboratory when a circular tank of liquid was rotated at different speeds at its centre and periphery. The most common shape was six sided, but shapes with three to eight sides were also produced. The shapes form in an area of turbulent flow between the two different rotating fluid bodies with dissimilar speeds.[22][23] A number of stable vortices of similar size form on the slower (south) side of the fluid boundary, and these interact with each other to space themselves out evenly around the perimeter. The presence of the vortices influences the boundary to move northward where each is present, and this gives rise to the polygon effect.[23] Polygons do not form at wind boundaries unless the speed differential and viscosity parameters are within certain margins and thus absent at other likely places, such as Saturn's south pole or the poles of Jupiter.
QED
(3,328 posts)6. Wow! This is cool.
Found a short video about it.
mysteryowl
(9,033 posts)7. Thanks for posting. This is so cool!
moonbeam23
(415 posts)8. Thanks for posting this n/t
drumpfsucks
(55 posts)9. I have become so skepticle.......
As AI get bigger, better and stronger, I wonder WHERE the AI and REAL start and stop.
That is all.

