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Saturn's North Pole Is A Hexagon, And No One Knows Why

144 点作者 PhearTheCeal大约 12 年前

13 条评论

lkrubner大约 12 年前
Reseachers were able to model this in the lab:<p><a href="http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-04/saturns-mysterious-hexagon-recreated-lab" rel="nofollow">http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-04/saturns-myster...</a>
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gavanwoolery大约 12 年前
I can posit a theory:<p>A hexagon is a boundary shape with the least energy. What you are really probably seeing is a circle that has pushed outwards against another set of forces and reached equilibrium (differing temperatures, gasses, who knows what). I have been playing with voronoi diagrams and diffusion limited aggregation recently , and it is amazing some of the structures that will emerge when a system reaches equilibrium. It is possible that certain forces have aligned with their peak energies in the form of a regular polyhedra, which happens all over nature on large and small scales.
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ChuckMcM大约 12 年前
There are a number of fluid dynamic studies that show 'angled' flow, generally around mixed densities and viscositys coming into contact with each other. That said, its a cool effect.<p>If it were science fiction there would be a giant hexagonal shaped structure under the clouds on the pole. Waiting ...
bdunbar大约 12 年前
It's God's own hex nut.<p>Don't take it off! Saturn will fall off and go wobbling around the Solar System.
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jere大约 12 年前
&#62;It turned out that the rate of ring rotation changed the shape of the pattern from a circle to just about anything, including ovals, triangles, squares and various polygons.<p>Wow. Imagine if it were a square on Saturn. I think that would provide more fodder for sci fi writers than the hexagon.
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michaelsbradley大约 12 年前
Perhaps it's related to the plasma phenomenon of dicotron instability?<p><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20110420.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini...</a><p><a href="http://www.plasma-universe.com/Diocotron_instability" rel="nofollow">http://www.plasma-universe.com/Diocotron_instability</a><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocotron_instability" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocotron_instability</a>
teeja大约 12 年前
<a href="http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=2531" rel="nofollow">http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=2531</a> <i>Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby have created similar geometric shapes (holes in the form of stars, squares, pentagons and hexagons) in whirlpools of water in a cylindrical bucket.</i>
espadrine大约 12 年前
The website has an awkwardly placed link.<p>The link mentions "Saturn's South Pole … with its rotating vortex" with a link to another post from the website with a picture of the vortex, but the description is that of "the north pole of Saturn… [a] vortex of strange and complex swirling clouds" encompassed in a hexagon.<p>Do we have pictures of the south pole?
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jkd大约 12 年前
we know it already <a href="http://mysteriesexplored.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/saturn-and-lord-shaneeshwara-part-two-end/" rel="nofollow">http://mysteriesexplored.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/saturn-and...</a>
amai大约 12 年前
I bet on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_wave" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_wave</a> : The waves can take the form of stripes, close-packed hexagons, or even squares or quasiperiodic patterns. See also <a href="http://nanopatentsandinnovations.blogspot.de/2012/11/new-type-of-gravity-wave-has-shape-of.html" rel="nofollow">http://nanopatentsandinnovations.blogspot.de/2012/11/new-typ...</a>
jimmahoney大约 12 年前
Reminds me of the 1986 novel Saturnalia - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia_(Callin_novel)" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia_(Callin_novel)</a> - in which the aliens who leave calling cards in the moons of Saturn are called "hexies" because they use so many 6's in their messages.
vanderZwan大约 12 年前
What about Rayleigh–Bénard convection?<p>"<i>Convective Bénard cells tend to approximate regular right hexagonal prisms, particularly in the absence of turbulence</i>"<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh-B%C3%A9nard_convection" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh-B%C3%A9nard_convection</a>
return0大约 12 年前
Clearly it must be that Saturn is a truncated icosahedron or similar. it was probably laser-cut by the aliens in the galactic planet factory.