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🇵🇾 Paraguay /Health & Science

Hubble discovers a gigantic decagon at Saturn’s south pole

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Spanish researchers identified a 10-sided structure around Saturn’s south polar region in Hubble images from 2023, later confirmed by observations in 2024 and 2025.
  • The decagon contrasts with Saturn’s better-known northern polar hexagon, whose atmospheric origin remains unresolved.
  • Less distinct vertices suggest the southern structure may still be developing and less stable than the northern hexagon.

A gigantic 10-sided shape has appeared in the clouds around Saturn's south pole, giving the ringed planet a second striking geometric atmospheric structure. Spanish researchers identified the decagon in images from the Hubble Space Telescope, supported by observations from a wide network of amateur astronomers.

Saturn's north pole has long been known for its unusual hexagon. The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft observed that formation during their flybys in 1980 and 1981. The hexagon surrounds the planet's northern polar region and has persisted for more than one Saturnian year, equivalent to about 30 Earth years.

Despite the apparent symmetry of Saturn's wind distribution and atmospheric dynamics, researchers had not seen a comparable formation in the south. That changed in 2023, as the southern hemisphere became more visible. Hubble images showed a decagon, a polygon with 10 sides, around the south polar region instead of another hexagon.

Further Hubble observations in 2024 and 2025, along with images from ground-based telescopes, confirmed the structure. Some of its vertices appear less sharply defined than others, suggesting that the phenomenon may still be developing and could currently be less stable than the northern hexagon.

“We are really surprised by this discovery, which was totally unexpected and opens the door to detailed research in the coming years,” said an emeritus professor at the University of the Basque Country. Amateur astronomers also tracked the decagon's vertices through their telescopes over the past year, helping researchers study its movement and evolution.

We are really surprised by this discovery, which was totally unexpected and opens the door to detailed research in the coming years.

· Emeritus professor at the University of the Basque CountryReaction to the discovery of Saturn's southern polar decagon.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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