Hubble Telescope Detects Decagon at Saturn’s South Pole

The Hubble Space Telescope has revealed a ten-sided cloud pattern, a decagon, surrounding Saturn’s South Pole. This discovery follows the 1987 finding of a hexagonal cloud pattern at the planet’s North Pole, observed by NASA’s Voyager spacecraft.

NASA explains that the geometric boundaries are possibly caused by waves when fast-moving gas away from the poles interacts with slower-moving gas closer to the poles. The Hubble image, a composite taken last year, marks Saturn’s South Pole with an ‘X’ and shows the decagon most prominently in the dark inner regions of circulating cloud bands.

The northern hexagon has remained stable for over 40 years, and researchers will continue to study the stability of the southern decagon.

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