Starship Asterisk*

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been traveling the Saturnian system in a set of inclined, or tilted, orbits that give mission scientists a vertigo-inducing view of Saturn's polar regions. This perspective has yielded images of roiling storm clouds and a swirling vortex at the center of Saturn's famed north polar hexagon.

These phenomena mimic what Cassini found at Saturn's south pole a number of years ago. Cassini has also seen storms circling Saturn's north pole in the past, but only in infrared wavelengths because the north pole was in darkness. But, with the change of the Saturnian seasons, the sun has begun to creep over the planet's north pole.

Eight and a half years into our history-making expedition around the ringed planet and we are still astounded by the seemingly endless parade of new planetary phenomena.

This particular set of raw, unprocessed images was taken on Nov. 27, 2012, from a distance of about 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) from Saturn.

Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

[i]~ 361488 kilometers away, NAC using the P0 and CB2 filters[/i]

---

[i]~ 376171 kilometers away, WAC using the CB2 and IRP0 filters[/i]

---

[i]~ 400048 kilometers away, NAC using the P0 and CB2 filters[/i]

---

[i]~ 376034 kilometers away, WAC using the MT2 and IRP0 filters[/i]

---

Beyond wrote:
I think the movie 2001 got it wrong. It's not Jupiter... It's Saturn, and it's full of Hexagonoliths!!!!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland wrote:
<<Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884 satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott. Writing pseudonymously as "a Square", Abbott used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to offer pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture.

Men are portrayed as polygons whose social status is determined by their regularity and the number of their sides with a Circle considered to be the "perfect" shape. On the other hand, females consist only of lines and are required by law to sound a "peace-cry" as they walk, because when a line is coming towards an observer in a 2-D world, her body appears merely as a point. The Square evinces accounts of cases where women have accidentally or deliberately stabbed men to death, as evidence of the need for separate doors for women and men in buildings.

The population of Flatland can "evolve" through the "Law of Nature", which states: "a male child shall have one more side than his father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility. Thus the son of a Square is a Pentagon, the son of a Pentagon, a Hexagon; and so on."

In the world of Flatland, classes are distinguished using the "Art of Hearing," the "Art of Feeling" and the "Art of Sight Recognition." Classes can be distinguished by the sound of one's voice, but the lower classes have more developed vocal organs, enabling them to feign the voice of a polygon or even a circle. Feeling, practised by the lower classes and women, determines the configuration of a person by feeling one of their angles. The "Art of Sight Recognition," practised by the upper classes, is aided by "Fog," which allows an observer to determine the depth of an object. With this, polygons with sharp angles relative to the observer will fade out more rapidly than polygons with more gradual angles. Colour of any kind was banned in Flatland after Isosceles workers painted themselves to impersonate noble Polygons. The Square describes these events, and the ensuing war, at length.>>

Ann wrote:
Flatland females, I suppose, have no sides at all, as they are no doubt only good for breeding. They are probably either dots, lines or two-dimensional blobs.

(We can hope that Mr Abbott meant to critize the way Victorian England treated females, too!)

neufer wrote:

Beyond wrote:
I think the movie 2001 got it wrong. It's not Jupiter... It's Saturn, and it's full of Hexagonoliths!!!!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland wrote:
<<Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884 satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott. Writing pseudonymously as "a Square", Abbott used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to offer pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture.

Men are portrayed as polygons whose social status is determined by their regularity and the number of their sides with a Circle considered to be the "perfect" shape. On the other hand, females consist only of lines and are required by law to sound a "peace-cry" as they walk, because when a line is coming towards an observer in a 2-D world, her body appears merely as a point. The Square evinces accounts of cases where women have accidentally or deliberately stabbed men to death, as evidence of the need for separate doors for women and men in buildings.

The population of Flatland can "evolve" through the "Law of Nature", which states: "a male child shall have one more side than his father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility. Thus the son of a Square is a Pentagon, the son of a Pentagon, a Hexagon; and so on."

In the world of Flatland, classes are distinguished using the "Art of Hearing," the "Art of Feeling" and the "Art of Sight Recognition." Classes can be distinguished by the sound of one's voice, but the lower classes have more developed vocal organs, enabling them to feign the voice of a polygon or even a circle. Feeling, practised by the lower classes and women, determines the configuration of a person by feeling one of their angles. The "Art of Sight Recognition," practised by the upper classes, is aided by "Fog," which allows an observer to determine the depth of an object. With this, polygons with sharp angles relative to the observer will fade out more rapidly than polygons with more gradual angles. Colour of any kind was banned in Flatland after Isosceles workers painted themselves to impersonate noble Polygons. The Square describes these events, and the ensuing war, at length.>>

Pergatory wrote:
(hypothetical theory) Saturn may some day lose it's atmosphere, it's simply saying goodbye.

Although it takes several thousands of years.

• That long