NASA's Cassini spacecraft sent back more jaw-dropping photos of Saturn this week.
The images, taken on December 2 and 3, show scenes from high above Saturn's northern hemisphere, including one of the planet's strange hexagon-shaped storm, according to NASA.
![The Cassini spacecraft has filmed a strange hexagon-shaped storm spinning over the northern hemisphere of Saturn.](/web/20161210153120im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/6/u/f/h/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt6fyd.png/1481169836082.jpg)
Each side of the hexagon is about as wide as Earth. A circular storm lies at the centre, at the planet's north pole.
The hexagon is actually a current of air in Saturn's upper atmosphere, similar to Earth's jet streams, said meteorologist Eric Berger, a senior space editor at technology publication ARS Technica.
![The Cassini spacecraft has filmed a strange hexagon-shaped storm spinning over the northern hemisphere of Saturn.](/web/20161210153120im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/6/h/7/0/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt6fyd.png/1481169836082.jpg)
It has winds estimated at 320km/h.
"Scientists don't know how long the feature has existed, but they think, because there are no landforms - such as mountains on Earth - to disrupt the weather pattern, it may persist for a long time," Berger said.
They are the first photos from the new "ring-grazing orbits" phase of the Cassini mission, which began on November 30.
Each of these week-long orbits - 20 in all - carries the spacecraft high above Saturn's northern hemisphere before sending it skimming past the outer edges of the planet's main rings, NASA said.
![The Cassini spacecraft has filmed a strange hexagon-shaped storm spinning over the northern hemisphere of Saturn.](/web/20161210153120im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/6/h/7/w/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt6fyd.png/1481169836082.jpg)
"It's taken years of planning, but now that we're finally here, the whole Cassini team is excited to begin studying the data that come from these ring-grazing orbits," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"This is a remarkable time in what's already been a thrilling journey," she added.
More images of the planet, its rings, and its moons will be coming in the weeks and months ahead.
The images were taken by a wide-angle camera at a distance of about 390,000 kilometres from Saturn.
The Cassini mission will continue until September 15, 2017, at which point the spacecraft will take a final dive into Saturn's atmosphere and burn up.
Launched in 1997, Cassini has been studying Saturn and its moons since 2004.
The Cassini mission is a co-operative project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency.
USA Today