Reacción a "A Spanish team has discovered a decagonal wave at Saturn’s south pole for the first time"

This is a very interesting observation and piece of research, because the existence of hexagon-shaped standing waves exclusively in the clouds over Saturn’s north pole seemed to suggest that this was a unique phenomenon, and that there was a strong and as yet unknown asymmetry between the planet’s two poles. This discovery of a decagonal structure at the south pole demonstrates that there is no fundamental—let us say qualitative—difference between the two poles, but only a quantitative one, just as predicted by various numerical models and by some laboratory experiments using rotating fluids.

It demonstrates that polygonal structures form naturally at the boundaries of strong zonal winds (along bands parallel to the equator) when these bands narrow at high latitudes, due to phenomena of turbulence and shear. An everyday analogy might be the turbulence and circular eddies that occur when stirring a cup of coffee. The precise number of vertices, as predicted by these studies, could be 6—as had been observed at Saturn’s north pole—or greater or lesser depending on the specific values of the zonal winds, the depth of these jets, the latitude at which they are found, the planet’s rotation and radius, and so on. And this is exactly what this study is confirming.

This observation now opens up interesting avenues for deepening our understanding of the enigmatic atmospheres of the giant planets. In particular, it will be interesting to continue observing this decagonal structure to determine its stability over time; for example, the hexagon in the northern hemisphere is very stable, but the zonal winds in the southern hemisphere are weaker. Or to determine whether the origin of this structure is linked to nearby anticyclones, or whether the opposite is true—that these polygonal clouds generate adjacent cyclones and anticyclones.

It will also serve as an excellent test bed to finally clarify which of the various physical models proposed to explain the north-polar hexagon is the most accurate, as such a model should be able to predict and explain the details of both phenomena at both poles as part of a comprehensive explanation.

Furthermore, these models, validated by these observations, would then allow us to deduce as yet unknown properties of Saturn’s clouds, the planet’s differential rotation, and the connection between the cloud top and the depths of this gas giant, and to apply them to other planets, such as Jupiter or Venus, where stable structures have also been observed near their polar vortices.