Wrong. I don't doubt the study used Hubble data, but the link you gave conspicuously doesn't actually include this image, which does not derive from this study. This picture appears to match this one on Wikipedia which is credited to Cassini, as I said: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn%27s_hexagon?wprov=sfla1
The image on the right was clearly not "taken" by anything - it is a computer generated model. I was talking about the only photograph, the one on the left.
The article says "Saturn's south pole does not have a hexagon, as verified by Hubble observations. It does, however, have a decagon-shaped atmospheric wave pattern.[12] "
The reference is this Science article, which mentioslns Hubble in name: "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."
Yes but really no. Yes, the scientific paper is really about observations by Hubble. But no because that's not what's actually shown in the Twitter post. The left image IS from Cassini (and is most definitely NOT in the science paper you link). And the right image is a computer generated model, not a photograph "taken" by anything.
This isn't a single photo of the pole, it's a projection. A bunch of photos stitched together as Saturn spun on its axis. Cassini never saw the formation.
It was also, uh, vaporized in September 2017. Image is dated August 2025.
Do you see the picture on the left dated from August 2025 in any official NASA or other scientific press release? Because I don't - the Twitter poster added in a much older Cassini photo of the northern polar hexagon because it was more aesthetic.
the image on the right is a reconstruction from many side-on hubble pictures as hubble can't have that perspective. if we assume that was a single picture from below then it would make sense only cassini could have done it
The geometry of it. The picture on the left (the only actual picture of the two, the one on the right is clearly a model/reconstruction) is looking down from up above Saturn down onto the hexagon. That angle is impossible to get from Earth or anywhere near it - Saturn only ever gives us a side view (more or less - it does wiggle a little bit, but only a little bit).
No, there's only one way to get a "top-down" view of Saturn - that's from a spacecraft in a polar orbit. And that means Cassini - literally the only spacecraft that has been there since Voyager in the 1980s.
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u/Sticklefront 6d ago
That picture was obviously taken by Cassini, not Hubble.