Saturn’s Strange Hexagon – In Living Color! [View all]
Color-composite Cassini image of Saturns northern hexagon (NASA/JPL/SSI/Jason Major)
Cassini sure has been busy these past few days! After returning some mind-blowing images of the swirling 3,000-km-wide cyclone over Saturns north pole the spacecraft pulled back to give a wider view of the ringed giants upper latitudes, revealing one of its most curious features: the northern hexagon.
The image above is a color-composite made from raw images acquired by Cassini on November 28 from a distance of 379,268 miles (610,373 kilometers) away. Because the color channels were of a much lower resolution than the clear-filter monochrome image, the color is approximate in relation to individual atmospheric details. Still, it gives an idea of the incredible variation in hues around Saturns northern hemisphere as well as clearly showing the uncannily geometric structure of the hexagon.
(Can I get another WOW?)
Read more:
http://www.universetoday.com/98699/saturns-strange-hexagon-in-living-color/