Saturn Grows a New Shape! Hubble Spots a Giant 10-Sided Storm at Its South Pole
Quick Summary
NASA scientists have discovered something brand-new on Saturn — a giant 10-sided storm swirling around the planet’s south pole. It is the first shape like this ever seen in Saturn’s southern half. Scientists published the news this week and the whole astronomy world is buzzing.
What Happened?
You probably know that Saturn has a famous six-sided storm — called a hexagon — spinning at its north pole. Scientists have known about that hexagon for more than 40 years. Think of it like a giant spinning stop sign made of clouds, big enough to swallow four Earths at once.
Now, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has spotted something just as wild at Saturn’s south pole — but this time, the shape has ten sides instead of six. Scientists call it a decagon, which is just the word for any 10-sided shape. Think of it like a very large stop sign, except it has ten corners instead of eight, and it is made of swirling gas high up in Saturn’s sky.
Hubble first spotted faint hints of the shape back in 2023. Each year it looked a little clearer, a little sharper. By 2025, the 10-sided outline was so well defined it was impossible to miss. Scientists at the University of the Basque Country, along with NASA researchers, published the discovery on September 2 in a journal called Science Advances.
Here is something important: the new decagon is not just sitting still. It appears to be getting stronger and more defined over time. That makes it really exciting for scientists, because they get to watch a giant new weather pattern form right before their eyes — something that almost never happens.
Scientists had been searching for a south-pole twin to the famous northern hexagon since 1990. Even NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017, showed no sign of one. So the decagon apparently started forming very recently — in cosmic time, that is practically yesterday.
Why Does It Matter?
Saturn is not the calm, still planet it looks like in pictures. Its atmosphere is always churning and changing — a bit like Earth’s weather, just much, much bigger. Finding a huge 10-sided pattern that nobody expected shows scientists that there is still so much to discover, even about planets we have been studying for centuries.
Understanding Saturn’s storms also helps scientists learn about other giant planets in our solar system — and planets orbiting distant stars. Every new discovery is like finding another piece of a giant space puzzle.
Hubble is already scheduled to photograph Saturn again later this September. Those new pictures will help scientists see whether the decagon keeps getting stronger. Stay tuned!
Big Words
- Decagon — a shape that has exactly ten sides and ten corners, like a ten-sided polygon
- Atmosphere — the thick layer of gases that wraps around a planet, like the air that wraps around Earth
- Hexagon — a shape with exactly six sides; Saturn’s famous north-pole storm has been spinning in a hexagon shape for over 40 years
- Jet stream — a fast-moving river of wind high up in a planet’s atmosphere; Saturn’s new decagon is riding inside one of its powerful jet streams
- Science Advances — a respected scientific journal where researchers publish important new discoveries after other scientists check their work
Fun Fact
Saturn’s famous north-pole hexagon is so enormous that roughly four planets the size of Earth could fit inside it side by side.
Think About It
If Earth had a giant shape made of storms swirling at one of its poles, what shape do you think it might be — and why?
Sources
- NASA Science — NASA’s Hubble Tracks New Decagon Encircling Saturn’s South Pole
- phys.org — Hubble tracks new decagon encircling Saturn’s south pole
- STScI — NASA’s Hubble Tracks New Decagon Encircling Saturn’s South Pole
- EarthSky — Saturn’s south pole decagon confirmed! A mysterious 10-sided figure
- ScienceDaily — NASA Scientists Discover a Giant 10-Sided Pattern on Saturn