Saturn.
sixth planet in the Solar System, with a ring system mainly composed of ice particles
Hubble reveals mysterious 10-sided pattern swirling at Saturn's south pole
Astronomers have identified a giant 10-sided decagon in Saturn’s southern atmosphere, likely forming between 2017 and 2023 and continuing to evolve, with sides surpassing 10,000 miles. The feature, observed via Hubble and ground-based telescopes and published in Science Advances, drifts eastward about 6 mph and challenges the view that Saturn’s north-pole hexagon is unique by revealing a more complex, dual-pole meteorology.
Science · 15 sources · Sep 9, 2026Read itThe journal
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About Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun, and is the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth of the average density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive. Even though Saturn is almost as big as Jupiter, it has less than a third of its mass. Saturn orbits the Sun at a distance of 9.59 AU (1,434 million km), with an orbital period of 29.45 years.
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