11–20 of 41 posts
> remind you that we’ve lived a bold and daring adventure around the solar system’s most magnificent planet Other than the one we're standing on, you mean.
Well said. But, you know, with all its moons and rings, Saturn is way cool-looking than any other planet in our Solar System. That's why they called it that way, I guess.
I have to say I've been pretty disappointed with Cassini so far. Edit: reply was correct, I did in fact mean Juno.
One hypothesis, developed at Oxford University, is that the hexagon forms where there is a steep latitudinal gradient in the speed of the atmospheric winds in Saturn's atmosphere. Similar regular shapes were created in the 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 from three to eight sided were also produced. The shapes form in an area of turbulent flow between the two different rotating fluid bodies with dissimilar speeds
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn's_hexagon
Paper (paywalled): http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103509...
Every time I see photos of the big gas planets like this, I imagine earth orbiting the gas giant and feel very, very small and get what feels like mild vertigo from the overwhelming scale. This is truly wonderful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoW8Tf7hTGA
(though this sort of thing is far more impressive when seen in VR)
But even better than that, for me, is going somewhere with very little light pollution at night and simply looking up at the Milky Way. Nothing makes me feel smaller and more in awe.
I have to say I've been pretty disappointed with Cassini so far. Edit: reply was correct, I did in fact mean Juno.
Cassini has:
- found "sand" dunes, river channels, mountains, and lakes on Titan
- landed a probe on Titan
- photographed most of Saturn's moons
- discovered gas jets on Enceladus and adjusted the mission to investigate and discovered that they are caused by tidal compression which squeezes out some of the subsurface ocean and forms one of Saturn's faint rings
- discovered and researched how spokes and propellers form in the rings
- documented the shepherding action of the shepherd moons on the rings
- discovered the long-lasting polar hexagon feature
- photographed the rings at equinox, which dramatically shows the vertical displacement of the rings
- plus way more
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov is a better site. There is a record of some of the top findings at https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/galleries/hall-of-fame/
For those who are also wondering about the briefly mentioned hexagon-shaped jet stream: One hypothesis, developed at Oxford University, is that the hexagon forms where there is a steep latitudinal gradient in the speed of the atmospheric winds in Saturn's atmosphere. Similar regular shapes were created in the laboratory when a circular tank of liquid was rotated at different speeds at its centre and periphery. The mo…
Every time I see photos of the big gas planets like this, I imagine earth orbiting the gas giant and feel very, very small and get what feels like mild vertigo from the overwhelming scale. This is truly wonderful
Personally I find that pictures and the idea of those giant super smooth planets make me feel uneasy and downright scary. Something along the line; "Way too big, way too smooth to be natural. Almost hostile, evil"
For those who are also wondering about the briefly mentioned hexagon-shaped jet stream: One hypothesis, developed at Oxford University, is that the hexagon forms where there is a steep latitudinal gradient in the speed of the atmospheric winds in Saturn's atmosphere. Similar regular shapes were created in the laboratory when a circular tank of liquid was rotated at different speeds at its centre and periphery. The mo…
Thanks for providing these references. The hexagonal cloud formation was the first thing I noticed and was hoping someone would have already provided references in the comments. One of the great aspects of the HN community!
My hunch is that it's an artifact of pi, somehow. Six being easily factored to three, which has close proximity to pi.
> remind you that we’ve lived a bold and daring adventure around the solar system’s most magnificent planet Other than the one we're standing on, you mean.
Well said. But, you know, with all its moons and rings, Saturn is way cool-looking than any other planet in our Solar System. That's why they called it that way, I guess.