APOD: 2020 July 5 - Saturns Northern Hexagon

Good morning Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Saturn's Northern Hexagon." Ever hear of the Saturn Hexagon? The clouds around Saturn's North Pole form a hexagon shape large enough to swallow four planets the size of our Earth. First discovered in 1981 by Voyager, it was studied in detail by Cassini in 2006 and again in 2012. What forms the hexagon shape? One theory suggests that the hexagon forms where wind speeds are significantly different at the center vs wind speeds at the outer edges. Acquiring its first sunlit views of far northern Saturn in late 2012, the Cassini spacecraft's wide-angle camera recorded this near-infrared image of the ringed planet's north pole. The composite of image data results in red hues for low clouds, green for high ones, and blue for Saturn's rings. Quite a sight to see.