What is the name of the hexagonal storm at Saturn's north pole?

The hexagonal storm at Saturn’s north pole is called Saturn’s hexagon. It is a persistent, six-sided cloud pattern surrounding the planet’s north polar vortex at roughly 78° north latitude.

The feature was first noticed in images from NASA’s Voyager flybys in 1981 and later studied in detail by the Cassini spacecraft. Each side is about 14,500 kilometers long, making the pattern wider than Earth. Its winds move at roughly 320 kilometers per hour, and the entire structure rotates with Saturn’s internal rotation period.

Scientists generally interpret the hexagon as a standing atmospheric wave formed by powerful jet-stream dynamics, although its exact origin remains under investigation. Laboratory experiments have produced similar polygonal patterns in rotating fluids. Cassini also observed the hexagon changing from bluish to golden as Saturn’s seasons altered the polar haze.

It is commonly confused with Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, but that feature is a giant oval vortex, not a six-sided polar pattern. Saturn’s south pole has a vortex too, but no comparable hexagon.