Space
A ten-sided shape on Saturn
Hubble pictures show a giant ten-sided wave around Saturn's south pole, the first pattern of its kind in the planet's south.
Pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope show a giant shape with ten sides around the south pole of Saturn. NASA and the European Space Agency shared the discovery on September 2, 2026. The study was published in the journal Science Advances. The new shape is called a decagon, which is the name for a figure with ten sides.
The decagon is not a solid object but a huge wave in Saturn's atmosphere. It sits inside a jet stream, which is a band of very strong wind. The wave lies at about 63 degrees south latitude, and it reaches through several layers of the atmosphere.
Word in this story
A shape or design that repeats in a regular way.
The new shape reminds scientists of Saturn's famous hexagon, a six-sided pattern at the planet's north pole.