30 years is a long time to wait. But that is how long astronomers had to wait to see the north pole of Saturn which had been shrouded in darkness out of the Sun's rays until recently. Some 30 years ago, the Voyager spacecraft photographed a tantalizing, mysterious looking hexagonal shaped storm circling the pole of Saturn. When Saturn finally emerged from its winter season, Cassini was right there to take photographs.
Best part? Scientists are still at a loss to explain the phenomenon. The short animated video to the left was created from 3 still images snapped from the Cassini camera. They are the first visible light photos taken since Voyager. In 2006, Cassini did image the hexagonal storm using its onboard infrared spectrometer, but those images were of poorer resolution.
The infrared photos did reveal that the storm runs much deeper into Saturn's atmosphere than previously thought. But the new visible photos reveal considerably more details. The black void spot in the middle is due to the lack visible light available at the center of the pole when the photographs were snapped.
For more on this story here are some additional links:
Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon Emerges from Winter Darkness SpaceRef.com
Spring Reveals Saturn's Hexagon Jet Stream NASA