[QUOTE=JPL]
Pasadena, Calif. – An odd, six-sided, honeycomb-shaped feature circling the entire north pole of Saturn has captured the interest of scientists with NASA’s Cassini mission.
NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft imaged the feature over two decades ago. The fact that it has appeared in Cassini images indicates that it is a long-lived feature. A second hexagon, significantly darker than the brighter historical feature, is also visible in the Cassini pictures. The spacecraft’s visual and infrared mapping spectrometer is the first instrument to capture the entire hexagon feature in one image.
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The hexagon is similar to Earth’s polar vortex, which has winds blowing in a circular pattern around the polar region. On Saturn, the vortex has a hexagonal rather than circular shape. The hexagon is nearly 25,000 kilometers (15,000 miles) across. Nearly four Earths could fit inside it.
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The physics behind this ought to be interesting. I bet the UFO types will love this; no doubt it’s natural, but it looks artificial.
I suppose if you were right under it, you wouldn’t notice the nearly square sides. Does size and distance do that – make things that aren’t square look square? But equal size sides? Dang. Mind boggling.
There are some stunning photos on the NASA site
This one buried in the archives is pretty interesting
Apparently the Empire has built another Death Star and it is on its way here.
[QUOTE=Alistair McCello]
In the spirit of keeping this discussion completely factual I must point out that this exchange was between Leela, Fry, and Hermes, not Bender.
[/QUOTE]
