Story perspectives

Saturn’s South Pole Forms Rotating Ten-Sided Wave

9/4/2026

Summary

Story summary

Spanish planetary scientist Agustín Sánchez-Lavega and his team discovered a ten-sided wave around Saturn’s south pole.
It first appeared in Hubble images of 2023 after the south pole became visible.
The decagon spans about 104,250 miles in diameter, each side roughly 10,425 miles.
It rotates eastward every ~800 days at 10 km/h within a 420 km/h jet.
Researchers cite a 4,000-km anticyclone as an influence, noting the decagon is strengthening unlike the north-pole hexagon.

History

Historical Context

In 1980, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft captured the first images of Saturn’s north-pole hexagonal jet, revealing a six-sided cloud pattern about 30,000 km across. Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory measured the hexagon’s 120-day rotation period and linked its stability to a 14-meter-per-second wind shear. Today, Agustín Sánchez-Lavega’s team using the Hubble Space Telescope observed a decagonal wave at Saturn’s south pole, echoing Voyager’s hexagon discovery with a ten-sided structure. The parallel underscores how long-term atmospheric dynamics studies, from Voyager to Hubble, drive future missions like Cassini’s 2004-2017 exploration of Saturn’s polar vortices.

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Story summary

Spanish planetary scientist Agustín Sánchez-Lavega and his team discovered a ten-sided wave around Saturn’s south pole.
It first appeared in Hubble images of 2023 after the south pole became visible.
The decagon spans about 104,250 miles in diameter, each side roughly 10,425 miles.
It rotates eastward every ~800 days at 10 km/h within a 420 km/h jet.
Researchers cite a 4,000-km anticyclone as an influence, noting the decagon is strengthening unlike the north-pole hexagon.

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