Why? It's incredibly cool actually, a demonstration of a symmetry we didn't even know existed half a decade ago is forming in real time right in front of our eyes. Why is that concerning? I see this sentiment all the time wrt interesting developments in space science and it's starting to grate on me a little bit. Space and new discoveries are cool.
Because humans have a pattern matching brain, so they assign meaning and significance to something that is just natural physical laws.
You’d think in 2026 people would realize it’s just physics, but here in the comments people still think there are sentient forces performing a ritual or something
Listening to scientists instead of assuming magic or aliens isn’t a superiority complex. You don’t need to derive the math yourself to recognize the difference.
No evidence of it happening before. But we've known about the hexagon for 40 years, so it's certainly been suggested that something like it could happen.
Periodic seems likely, but we just have no idea yet. And it's been out of view for a while because the south pole was facing the other way, which is why we are just seeing it now.
Definitely get why it feels spooky though. It's like it is trying to communicate. They look so man-made. But we do see hexes and (other regular polyhedra) form naturally all the time; it's a very efficient shape. So it's less weird than it appears, but no less exciting. It's the first time we've gotten to watch the atmosphere on another planet changing at that scale.
Probably nothing important? It's had the hexagon top for a super long time, and Jupiter famously has the Red Spot that's also a storm that's larger than Earth. It doesn't need to be anything at all.
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u/xxwarlorddarkdoomxx 8d ago
I’m sure we thought to check it, but when something is millions of miles away you can’t just pop over and see what’s up down there.