![]() how did such a large system form and how can such a large system stay unchanged on this large planet?”īy creating a 3D simulation model of Saturn’s atmosphere, Yadav and Bloxham believe are they closing in on an answer. “That is really striking and completely unexpected. “We see storms on Earth regularly and they are always spiraling, sometimes circular, but never something with hexagon segments or polygons with edges,” Yadav said. In a recently published paper in PNAS, the researchers began to wrap their heads around how the vortex came to be. Yadav, who works in Bloxham’s lab in Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Two of the many scientists-turned-interplanetary-storm-chasers working to uncover the secrets of this marvel are Jeremy Bloxham, the Mallinckrodt Professor of Geophysics, and research associate Rakesh K. A hurricane like it doesn’t exist on any other known planet or moon. The storm is about 20,000 miles in diameter and is bordered by bands of winds blowing up to 300 miles per hour. The six-sided vortex is an atmospheric phenomenon that has been fascinating planetary scientists since its discovery in the 1980s by the American Voyager program, and the subsequent visit in 2006 by the U.S.-European Cassini–Huygens mission. One of Saturn’s mysteries involves the massive storm in the shape of a hexagon at its north pole. Learning more about it could yield some insights into the creation of the solar system itself. Even now the sixth planet from the sun holds many mysteries, partly because its distance away makes direct observation difficult and partly because this gas giant (which is multiple times the size of our planet) has a composition and atmosphere, mostly hydrogen and helium, so unlike that of Earth. With its dazzling system of icy rings, Saturn has been a subject of fascination since ancient times.
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