Science Advances· 2026Q1
A decagon wave around Saturn’s south pole
- 2citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
A decagonal wave, moving eastward at 2.5 m/s with oscillating vertices, has been discovered near Saturn's south pole (58°S-63°S), unlike any previously observed wave phenomenon on the planet.
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Key points
- A decagonal wave has been discovered at planetographic latitudes ~58°S to 63°S on Saturn.
- The decagon moves eastward at 2.5 m/s, much slower than the nearby zonal jet (116 m/s).
- The wave's vertices oscillate in longitude with a period of 32 days and amplitudes of 4.6° to 8.4°.
- Shallow water model simulations suggest potential origins from jet peak disturbances or anticyclonic vortices.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Saturn has a unique long-lived, nearly stationary hexagon wave close to its north pole that is coupled to an intense eastward jet. Despite decades of observation, no similar wave has been reported so far in the southern hemisphere or elsewhere on Saturn. Ground-based and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images obtained in 2025 revealed the presence of a decagonal wave at planetographic latitudes ∼58°S to 63°S. HST images in 2023 and 2024 showed vertices with weaker albedo contrasts and linear sides of the decagon, implying an evolving phenomenon. The decagon moves eastward with a velocity of 2.5 meters per second, much slower than the zonal jet at 60.5°S with 116 meters per second, and the longitudes of its vertices oscillate with a period of 32 days and amplitudes of 4.6° to 8.4°. From its properties, the decagon could be a large-scale meandering wave trapped vertically and confined meridionally by the dominant jet curvature. Shallow water model simulations suggest that the decagon may have originated from a spatially periodic disturbance in the jet peak or may have been driven by a dark anticyclonic vortex immediately to the north.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Science Advances, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy and AstrophysicsPhysics and Astronomy