Saturn's hexagon.

[Mark Wagner]

Can anyone explain this? Knew about it of course, but this was in my news feed and I find it just head-scratching.

[Steven R.]

That image looks exaggerated. AI?

On Mon, May 4, 2026, 16:26 Mark Wagner <itsmar...@gmail.com> wrote:

Can anyone explain this? Knew about it of course, but this was in my news feed and I find it just head-scratching.

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[Vishal Kasliwal]

Pretty crazy - it's in the visible spectrum. Not sure what the contrast is like though...

Vishal

On Mon, May 4, 2026, 16:26 Mark Wagner <itsmar...@gmail.com> wrote:

Can anyone explain this? Knew about it of course, but this was in my news feed and I find it just head-scratching.

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[Rajah]

These are some NASA images
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/cassini/science/saturn/hexagon-in-motion/

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[Mark Wagner]

Yes, visible, AI, NASA, whatevva....  but *how* is it happening?

[Vishal Kasliwal]

Apparently it can be imaged using amateur equipment - https://www.planetary.org/articles/0201-fletcher-saturns-hexagon-viewed-from-ground

The picture in that link suggests that resolution is also critical for distinguishing the hexagonal shape. 

[Jamie Dillon, DDK]

I've read a lot about that polar hexagon. Big Cassini fan. Quick punchline, we don't have a thorough model for what causes it.

The Cassini page Rajah mentioned has good images. The one you saw, Mark, is bogus.

[Mark Wagner]

Jamie, I never asked if the image was real. I asked how it happened.

Here's an AI explanation:

"Why a hexagon specifically?
In rotating fluids, certain flow speeds and boundary conditions can produce polygonal patterns. Laboratory experiments with spinning fluids have recreated stable triangles, squares, pentagons—and hexagons—depending on the setup. Saturn’s conditions just happen to favor six sides."

[Steven R.]

It's a standing handwave :-)

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[Peter Natscher]

Hurricane Melissa (2024) crossing over Jamaica showed from space multiple geometric cyclone activity within its eye.

https://www.facebook.com/TannerCharlesChasing/videos/time-lapse-of-mesovortices-swirling-within-the-eye-of-category-5-hurricane-melis/1391329492601283/

[Jamie Dillon, DDK]

And Peter, what's going on at the cloud tops to make that hexagon is a combination of jet streams!

[Peter Santangeli]

Appropriate to the day...

"I have a very bad feeling about this..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7eqjiRRIqg

pete

On Mon, May 4, 2026 at 8:21 PM Jamie Dillon, DDK <ngc1...@gmail.com> wrote:

And Peter, what's going on at the cloud tops to make that hexagon is a combination of jet streams!

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[Peter Natscher]

UofDayton: "Yes, hurricanes are significantly affected by jet streams, which act as steering currents that dictate their path, speed, and intensity. These high-altitude winds can steer storms away from land, cause them to accelerate, or, in some cases, provide energy that helps them maintain strength as they move into higher latitudes.

[Dan Durkin]

The phenomena (Saturn's polar hexagon and hurricanes developing polygonal structures) are explained as the atmosphere approximating a 2D fluid and the differing velocities are subject to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. This generates some very interesting vortex dynamics. In the 1990's at UC Berkeley, I was part of a research group that studied these phenomena in plasmas. Cool stuff!

[Brad Templeton]

What's annoying about this image, which is not an actual image but some sort of artist's or AI's enhancement, is of something that is quite real, and even looks impressive in the true images.   Yet people are posting this literally saying, "I'm amazed that this is real!"   But the problem is that while the hexagon is real, what they are posting is not, and that teaches the wrong message.  There's been a big spate of posts recently of a fake image of the Apollo 11 landing site, saying "See, all you conspiracy theorists, the moon landing was real."    Using a fake image to debunk a conspiracy that something was faked is about as dumb as it gets.

[Mark Wagner]

On 5/5/2026 14:02, Brad Templeton wrote:

What's annoying about this image, which is not an actual image but some sort of artist's or AI's enhancement

LOL, here's another "artist's enhancement" -

[Richard Navarrete]

Darned influencer. 

Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

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[David Kirjassoff]

My new Seestar S30 pro produces images just like that in Milky Way mode :)

Sent from my iPad

On May 5, 2026, at 2:48 PM, Mark Wagner <itsmar...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Mark Wagner]

That one eyepiece Frank had at Coe recently was like being enhanced.