APOD 2. 6 Saturn's Hexagon Comes to Light

Saturn's North Pole is surrounded by a mysterious hexagon-shaped cloud pattern that has no known cause. In the early 1980's, Voyager 1 captured the strange feature, but the image was not at a good perspective and scientists did not know what to make of the formation. The Saturn orbiter Cassini confirmed the existence of the hexagon, and recently the pole became illuminated for the first time during the Cassini mission. This allowed Cassini to take images of the hexagon using non-infrared imaging. Cassini has now taken enough images to be able to put together a time-lapse video. This video has shown many unusual cloud motions, such as waves coming from the corners of the hexagon. Scientists are still puzzled by the hexagon and will continue to study the hexagon.