NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has confirmed a giant, evolving 10-sided atmospheric wave around Saturn's south pole, the first large regular-sided jet mapped in that hemisphere, Goddard reported Wednesday. [1] The feature sits in a jet stream and extends through multiple atmospheric layers. Different Hubble wavelengths shift its apparent position because they probe different altitudes. [1] [3] That is a wave in progress. It is not a new planet shape filed and done.

The results appeared Wednesday in Science Advances. [1] [2] Lead author Agustín Sánchez-Lavega of the University of the Basque Country and amateurs Trevor Barry and Jean-Paul Oger first saw an undulating southern band in 2024 ground images; 2025 images hinted harder. Hubble's Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program then traced the structure back to 2023. Cassini, orbiting from 2004 to 2017, showed no long-lived southern counterpart. [1] [3] Amy Simon, OPAL principal investigator at Goddard, said the northern six-sided jet has been there every time astronomers looked for more than 40 years. "This feature is different — it appears to be strengthening." [1] [3] AP, filing from Cape Canaveral, said a single side already exceeds 10,000 miles and the pattern migrates east at about 6 mph, unlike the nearly stationary northern jet. [2] Further Hubble and Webb work is needed to learn how it formed and whether it will last. [1] Science wires will sell a new Saturn. NASA's page is a developing 10-sided wave.

-- KENJI NAKAMURA, Tokyo