Science & Tech · Space · 10 hrs ago
A ten-sided atmospheric wave is forming around Saturn’s south pole
A ten-sided wave has appeared around Saturn’s south pole, where astronomers had not seen anything like it before.
Saturn’s north pole has had a six-sided cloud pattern, called a hexagon, for more than 40 years.
The new wave circles the planet inside a jet stream about 60 degrees south of the equator, where winds reach roughly 260 miles per hour.
Amateur astronomers first noticed a faint wavy band in 2024, and Hubble images show traces of the pattern dating back to 2023.
The pattern is still taking shape, giving researchers a rare chance to watch a major atmospheric feature develop.
Scientists do not yet know what caused it, and the pattern appears to extend through several layers of Saturn’s atmosphere.
Researchers will continue observing Saturn as the wave develops.
Hubble images show a ten-sided atmospheric wave forming around Saturn’s south pole.
The feature circles the pole at about 60 degrees south latitude within a jet stream.
Researchers found faint traces of the wave in Hubble data dating to 2023.
Amateur astronomers first noticed a faint wavy band in an image archive in 2024.
Scientists say they have never seen a feature like it in Saturn’s southern hemisphere and do not know why it formed.
- Who
- Researchers led by Agustín Sánchez-Lavega studied the wave. Amateur astronomers Trevor Barry and Jean-Paul Oger first noticed it in an image archive.
- What
- A ten-sided atmospheric wave is forming around Saturn’s south pole.
- When
- Hubble data show faint traces dating back to 2023. Researchers reported the finding in 2026.
- Where
- Around Saturn’s south pole, near 60 degrees south latitude.
- Why
- Not stated. Scientists do not know why the wave formed.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
NASA’s Voyager spacecraft first captured Saturn’s north-pole hexagon.
Hubble data later showed faint traces of the southern decagon dating back to this year.
Amateur astronomers Trevor Barry and Jean-Paul Oger noticed a faint wavy band in an image archive.
Ground-based images showed the ten-sided pattern more clearly.
Researchers reported that Hubble images show the wave is still taking shape.
- Sides
- The atmospheric wave has ten sides.
- Latitude
- It circles Saturn near 60 degrees south.
- Wind speed
- Winds in the jet stream reach about 260 miles per hour (420 kilometers per hour).
- Width
- The shape spans about 104,250 miles (167,820 km).
- First traces
- Hubble data show the feature as far back as 2023.
What people are saying
Images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn between 2004 and 2017, showed no inkling of a long-lived formation, either
We’ve never seen anything quite like this in Saturn’s southern hemisphere
The northern hexagon has been there every time we’ve looked, for more than 40 years
This feature is different – it appears to be strengthening, giving us the rare opportunity to watch a giant atmospheric pattern develop