Saturn breakthrough: How NASA was ‘taken by surprise after ‘huge’ find on planet

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, only behind Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius about nine times that of Earth and it’s most famous feature is its prominent ring system made up of ice and dust. In 1977 NASA launched two robotic probes – Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 to take a closer look at Saturn’s north pole, 

Brian Cox revealed during his new BBC series how the spacecraft made a surprise find. 

He said last month: “For the very first time we were able to study Saturn’s vast atmosphere in detail. 

“Voyager showed, beyond doubt, that Saturn’s upper atmosphere was made almost entirely of helium and hydrogen. 

“The very same gases so abundant in the early Solar System. 

A huge hexagonal structure in the clouds, so big it could fit our entire planet within it nearly four times

Brian Cox

“But this once chaotic gas was now organised into intricate weather systems.” 

Dr Cox went on to explain how Voyager discovered hexagonal cloud systems. 

He added: “And one find, above all others, took the Voyager team by surprise. 

“A huge hexagonal structure in the clouds, so big it could fit our entire planet within it nearly four times. 

“The atmosphere of Saturn was revealing itself to be stranger and more dynamic than we could ever have imagined.” 

These systems are around 9,000 miles long and 18,000 miles wide and are made up of atmospheric gases moving at 200mph. 

It rotates almost 11 hours and does not shift like other clouds in the atmosphere. 

NASA later revisited the find in 2006 during the Cassini-Huygens mission, discovering the hexagons had changed colour from blue to almost gold. 

Later Hubble observations revealed the south pole does not have a replica. 

During the same series, Dr Cox also revealed how NASA found all the ingredients for alien life on Saturn moon Enceladus. 

Scientists found cryovolcanoes shooting geyser-like jets of water vapour, molecular hydrogen, other volatiles, and solid material, including sodium chloride crystals and ice particles, into space. 

Dr Cox said: “Cassini has given us a glimpse beneath the ice of Enceladus and it is genuinely fascinating in a scientific sense because many biologists believe that hydrothermal vents like those are almost certainly present on the floor of Enceladus and they were the cradle for life on Earth. 

“All the ingredients are present, there’s hot water in touch with ice and minerals that’s a reactive caldron of chemistry.  

“There are reactive gases – methane – and Cassini found molecular hydrogen in the plumes and that was one of the food sources of primitive organisms on Earth.  

“So there really is a possibility there is life in orbit around Saturn today.” 

Source: Read Full Article