Saturn's Hexagon

1. Shurik
   October 9th, 2009 at 5:34 pm

   hax

2. emmakate
   October 9th, 2009 at 6:03 pm

   This doesn't really surprise me, considering how often you see hexagons in nature. Like even when you see a glint of sunlight and it's a six-sided star shape, so I think it's just another natural phenomenon. But I could be wrong

3. Sean
   October 9th, 2009 at 6:38 pm

   The existence of polygonal circumpolar vortices has been observed on Earth as well, and has recently been duplicated in the laboratory: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/34136

4. Wellin Fact
   October 9th, 2009 at 8:44 pm

   Remember, this is a six sided figure and Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun.
   Co-incidence?

5. Dude
   October 9th, 2009 at 9:26 pm

   Never A Straight Answer

6. Lnothing7
   October 9th, 2009 at 9:31 pm

   fractals, look it up

7. Lnothing7
   October 9th, 2009 at 9:38 pm

   also hexagons "tessellate". the sum of all the angles in the shape add up to 360 degrees, so you can put them side by side and they can be repeated infinitly like triangles and squares. cool

   i like that "6th planet furthest from our sun" pretty sneaky universe.

8. Cola
   October 10th, 2009 at 12:38 am

   Dude, it's not their responsibility to explain everything to you.

   Science isn't about knowing everything, it's about a ton of hard work and often finding out all your previous assumptions were crap every time new data presents itself. NASA, not being staffed by wizards and psychics, is not the end all be all of astronomical science. Why do people freak out when scientists admit they don't know everything? Scientists never pretend they do. Is this some kind of lingering resentment over the discovery of germs? Do people just hate bathing?

   Although I'm sure you just thought you were being clever in casting your aspersions. Don't let me spoil your fun with my reason and logic.

9. Luna
   October 10th, 2009 at 8:59 am

   Pi

10. TomB
    October 10th, 2009 at 1:44 pm

    Its Well World (Jack L. Chalker introduced a world full of HEXes in the Midnight at the Well of Souls, 1977)

11. Josh
    October 10th, 2009 at 7:18 pm

    Hexagons appear in nature all of the time. Be it unfocused light or snowflakes. This could be just something like that.

    But I will stay with my idea of there could be something there. It is always more interesting.

12. Wes
    October 10th, 2009 at 11:15 pm

    Unfocused light is hexagonal? Eh?

13. Johnny Cat
    October 10th, 2009 at 11:25 pm

    Perhaps Josh means anamorphic lens flare, which is not in nature, but the nature of light recording on film.
    

14. Foreigner1
    October 11th, 2009 at 6:44 am

    The Giant Hexagon- A forcefield that the Saturnians have erected to create a lasting summer-climate...

15. Foreigner1
    October 11th, 2009 at 8:12 am

    On a more serious note:

    http://news.softpedia.com/news/Rotating-Water-Gives-Rise-to-Geometric- Figures-23640.shtml

16. ted
    October 11th, 2009 at 9:48 am

    I'm just waiting for the giant Allen key to show up, so we can open this thing.

17. Wes
    October 12th, 2009 at 11:38 pm

    "Perhaps Josh means anamorphic lens flare, which is not in nature, but the nature of light recording on film."

    Actually, I presume he's talking about still-camera lens flare or the apparent shape of points of light in unfocused areas of a photo, but I wanted to make sure before explaining that such phenomena are due to the shape of the aperture.

18. Wes
    October 12th, 2009 at 11:39 pm

    Oh, and Ted's comment FTW.

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