This is one of the most bizarre weather patterns ever seen, the six-sided feature is circling the north pole of Saturn. Planets that have an atmosphere usually have a coil of clouds at the poles, but this cloud formation appears to be in the shape of a hexagon. The bizarre part is that the hexagon has smooth edges and the sides are the same length. NASA has seen this before with the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, and now they are witnessing it again with Cassini. Scientists say it is a long-lasting oddity. The hexagon is just about 15,000 miles across, which means about four Earth’s could fit in inside it. Thermal imagery from Cassini enables scientests to see that the hexagon goes down into the clouds about 60 miles. Saturn also had a one-eyed storm in November 2006 at the southern end of the planet. Source: Space
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With the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery imminent, (currently set to launch tomorrow,  July 4th at 2:37 pm) Space.com has posted a collection of 16 rare space shuttle images taken over the last 20 years.  These images show the beauty and tranquility of space from on-board and outside the space shuttle.  You can launch the gallery here.

The SPHERES micro-satellites program, led by David Miller over at MIT is developing micro-satellites that are capable of formation flying. About the size of a volleyball, the spheres micro-satellites have been launched aboard the International Space Station on May 18th. Aimed at developing better robotic technology for orbital work the SPHERES program has developed technology in these small micro-satellites that uses ultrasound technology to determine the micro-satellites position and are able to maintain a position in space with only 0.4 inches of drift. During the test aboard ISS the satellites will use their thrusters and hunt down special beacons installed throughout the the station. Intresting to say the least this technology can lead to more complex versions of micro-satellites that are able to hunt down and repair other satilites as well as help automated docking systems which in the future could be used for missions to the Moon or Mars.