NASA's Hubble Tracks New Decagon Encircling Saturn’s South Pole

September 02, 2026 2:00PM (EDT)Release ID: 2026-022
Side-by-side comparison of two views of the gas giant Saturn, labeled “August 29, 2025” at the top left corner. At left is a straight-on view of Saturn, a globe with pale yellow horizontal bands at the equator and orange and pink at the mid-latitudes. Some bands towards the north and south pole have a light blue hue. There are prominent horizontal rings circling at the equator. At right, labeled “Saturn’s south pole,” the south-polar view of Saturn shows concentric bands in its atmosphere, mostly tan and orange, surrounding a dark central region that has a 10-sided outline. A small, dashed circle at the very center of the pole with an “X” inside denotes missing data.

Summary

10-sided wave appears to strengthen in year-over-year Hubble observations

Stunning portraits of the gas giants in our solar system over the last several decades can make these planets seem like familiar, unchanging worlds. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and Saturn’s famous northern hexagon are recognizable features that have persisted for years, reinforcing that message.

However, astronomers know that these planets are actually constantly in motion, changing much like our own Earth. The latest major discovery from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope offers a striking example: a newly formed, 10-sided atmospheric wave, called a decagon, encircling Saturn’s south pole.

Researchers are just beginning to piece together the history of this new feature and investigate what its evolution can reveal about the dynamic atmospheres of gas giant planets.

Full Article

Recent observations with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have revealed a giant, evolving, 10-sided atmospheric wave encircling Saturn's south pole. This discovery marks the first time a large, regular-sided jet pattern has been observed in the planet's southern hemisphere. The feature appears remarkably similar to Saturn's famous hexagon at its northern pole, but is also distinctly different, suggesting scientists may be witnessing a new atmospheric phenomenon develop on the iconic gas giant. The results published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.  By piecing together several ...

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