By Marcia DunnAP Aerospace Writer\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Sept. 8, 2026 9 AM PT <\/p>\n
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Scientists have discovered an enormous 10-sided wave pattern in the icy ammonia clouds over Saturn\u2019s south pole.<\/p>\n
The spinning, meandering decagon appears to be even bigger and more unstable than a hexagon of clouds around Saturn\u2019s north pole spied by NASA\u2019s twin Voyagers in the 1980s, the Spanish-led team reported Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Although all of the solar system\u2019s planets with atmospheres have wave-spawning disturbances, only Saturn churns them out looking like polygons, geometric shapes bounded by straight lines.<\/p>\n
This new jet stream formation popped up in the Hubble Space Telescope\u2019s sights in 2023 after earlier observations came up empty. The researchers suspect the bizarre atmospheric phenomenon may have formed between 2017 and 2023, when Saturn\u2019s south pole was tilted away from Earth and therefore out of view. <\/p>\n
It could still be evolving, with a single side of the decagon already exceeding 10,000 miles.<\/p>\n
The findings are significant because it shows \u201cthe \u2018unique\u2019 hexagon is not as extraordinary as we thought,\u201d lead author Agustin S\u00e1nchez-Lavega with the University of the Basque Country said in an email. <\/p>\n
The findings were published in the journal Science Advances. <\/p>\n
Both the hexagon and decagon sit on jet streams, but the hexagon is practically stationary whereas the decagon migrates eastward at a tame 6 mph (10 kph).<\/p>\n
\u201cSaturn still has the ability to surprise us,\u201d the University of Leicester\u2019s Leigh Fletcher said in a statement. He measured the wind in the decagon as part of the study using the European Southern Observatory\u2019s Very Large Telescope in Chile.<\/p>\n
By comparing these two formations on opposite ends of Saturn, scientists can learn more about the weather patterns of giant gas planets, according to S\u00e1nchez-Lavega.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a highly interesting phenomenon that appears to be unique to Saturn, and we want to know why,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez-Lavega wonders whether the polygons might be related to the cyclones on Jupiter that are arranged in polygonal shapes. Improving views of Saturn\u2019s southern hemisphere over the next several years should allow astronomers to capture more details of the decagon and perhaps solve \u201cthis intriguing atmospheric mystery,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear whether the decagon will last as long as the hexagon, which has been visible by spacecraft for more than 40 years. That is longer than a Saturnian year, which is equivalent to 30 Earth years.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the time being, all I can confirm is that the decagon is still there,\u201d S\u00e1nchez-Lavega said.<\/p>\n
Dunn writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Marcia DunnAP Aerospace Writer\u00a0 Sept. 8, 2026 9 AM PT CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Scientists have discovered an enormous…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5130,73732,1744,38970,49484,276228,85,46,276230,84371,239603,276229,10562,141,39781,39042,7022,7740],"class_list":["post-609827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-cloud","tag-decagon","tag-earth","tag-european-southern-observatory","tag-finding","tag-hexagon","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-new-jet-stream-formation","tag-pattern","tag-polygon","tag-sanchez-lavega","tag-saturn","tag-science","tag-scientist","tag-south-pole","tag-university","tag-view"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}