Could Saturn be a manufactured planet?

dclary · Mar 28, 2007

When I played Traveller back in the day, I was introduced to the concept of starships skimming gas giants for raw materials to feed fusion and fission drives.

It appears that Cassini has recently confirmed that the *hexagonal* shape that Voyager first observed on Saturn's north pole 26 years ago is still there.

A hexagon. Stationary and fixed on the opposite pole of a well-formed hurricane eye that sits on Saturn's south pole.

Could it be that there's a device of some sort implanted or built in deep atmosphere that helps generate and/or maintain Saturn's gaseous mass and that the rings were placed around the planet as a form of signpost or advertising? "Buy Gas from Nebuloco! Look for the ring!"

Speculation, of course, but isn't that what we're all about?

http://news.aol.com/topnews/article...n/20070327163409990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

PeeDee · Mar 28, 2007

Well, it wasn't Slartibartfast, because there aren't any fjords or coastlines.

dclary · Mar 28, 2007

LOL. Good point.

Meerkat · Mar 28, 2007

It would address one wholly unsatisfactory feature of the rings, if they were created by the pulverization of a moon: their uniformity. Thanks for this fascinating link Deek. I'm going to change my password now, from dclarysux to ||||||||

dclary · Mar 28, 2007

FINALLY.

I am your Puumba.

ChunkyC · Mar 28, 2007

Nah. Geometric shapes occur in nature all the time. Ireland's Giants Causeway hexagonal basalt formations are one example. As for the uniformity of the rings, that's inevitable due to the gravitational forces at play. Anything not at the right balance point will either fly off into space or spiral down to the surface.

Now if that shape on Saturn turned out to be a door....

Mom'sWrite · Mar 28, 2007

If it was manufactured there'd be a big "Virgin" sign on it.

blacbird · Mar 28, 2007

I was not aware that virgins were manufactured.

caw

PeeDee · Mar 28, 2007

You think they just appear naturally?

Silly.

Zoombie · Mar 28, 2007

If that shape was a door, I think my head would explode and I'd spend a few minutes running in circles, shouting "WE'RE LIVING IN SCI-FI! WE'RE LIVING IN SCI-FI! WE'RE LIVING IN SCI-FI! WE'RE LIVING IN SCI-FI!" until I realized that I had no more head, then I'd fall over and die deader then being dead.

But, unfortunately, I'm of the opinion that planets normally look like planets because they're...planets and not gigantic galactic gas pumps. You don't need an artificial Jovian to get fuel from...you just need a Jovian.

blacbird · Mar 28, 2007

PeeDee said:
You think they just appear naturally?

Uhh . . . actually . . . I wouldn't know.

caw

PeeDee · Mar 28, 2007

Me neither.

Moving on....!

Of all possible planets in the Solar System to be artificially created, Earth makes the most sense out of all them. Maybe Mars was the prototype model, and when they finished ironing out the bugs, they shut it down and went "live" with the Earth model.

KTC · Mar 29, 2007

That hexagonal shape is actually the very first Starbucks.

Jamesaritchie · Mar 29, 2007

Virgins

PeeDee said:
You think they just appear naturally?

Silly.

From my experience, they don't occur at all.

Mom'sWrite · Mar 29, 2007

blacbird said:
I was not aware that virgins were manufactured.

caw

Richard Branson makes all known Virgins. Apparently, they are quite profitable.

MidnightMuse · Mar 29, 2007

The hexagon "bolt" shape is only impressive if we find a "wrench" in Jupiter's gasses.

I'll be impressed when they do find a Starbucks out there.

Nangleator · Mar 29, 2007

PeeDee said:
Maybe Mars was the prototype model, and when they finished ironing out the bugs, they shut it down and went "live" with the Earth model.

I'd just like to know what the poor people on Venus did to piss off the builders.

ChunkyC · Mar 29, 2007

MidnightMuse said:
The hexagon "bolt" shape is only impressive if we find a "wrench" in Jupiter's gasses.

a great big allen key floating at a lagrange point....

Ordinary_Guy · Mar 30, 2007

Interestingly, this is not new news. We've known it was there for at least 20 years.

Hexagons occur all the time in nature, but one on this scale is new (you could fit 4 earths in that shape). From what I remember, the natural hexagons usually occur in solids - so an ongoing process maintaining that shape in a gas is fairly novel. I'd guess a high probability that process is natural rather than artificial, but either way, it's pretty cool. Something spectacular to shake up our jaded view...

ChunkyC · Mar 30, 2007

Some confluence of flow patterns generated from different sources, perhaps? Like an upflow at the pole interacting with the latitudinal flow imparted by the planet's rotation.

But what would cause an upflow at the pole? A tailpipe?

Nangleator · Mar 30, 2007

Saturn rotates pretty quickly, which makes the north pole position slightly more understandable, in some vague sciencey way. The hexagonal shape suggests crystalization to me, or maybe some weird magnetic field influence.

Joe270 · Apr 10, 2007

Maybe the hexagon is a hatch. Maybe we can blow it open with some highly unstable dynamite (read: dyna-meetay).

They are watching us.

Damned mice.

TSByrne · Apr 25, 2007

Jesus christ you guys, it's obviously the stargate that the moon sentinel monolith will activate. I mean duh, be realistic.

My god, it's full of stars and all that...

Could Saturn be a manufactured planet?

Unabashed Mercenary

Where's my tea, please...?

Unabashed Mercenary

Claims the loan was a gift

Unabashed Mercenary

It's hard being green

Service with a smile

Where's my tea, please...?

Dragon of the Multiverse

Where's my tea, please...?

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Service with a smile

Midnight Reading

Rep Point Whore

It's hard being green

Industrial Strength

It's hard being green

Rep Point Whore