An exciting day for Astronomy

Saturn's hexagon weather system at its northern pole has been confirmed. Click here to see a video of the system in motion...its pretty cool. Science is at a loss to explain what is causing the phenomenon as Saturn has no bodies of water or landmasses to direct the windflow.

The Big Dipper has been discovered to have additional stars in it....you just can't see them. Turns out Alcor is actually a binary star with a much fainter twin that it dances around once every 90 years. Similar story happened for Alcor's neighbor, Mizar. Mizar was discovered by a colleague of Gallileo to be a binary star...and was then discovered at a later date that both "companion" stars also had partners! Alcor and Mizar are the stars at the bend of the Dipper's handle...Alcor is the smaller binary on the top and Mizar is the larger double binary on the bottom.

Norway had a puzzle on their hands as people witness an early-morning phenomenon in the form of a spiral of light forming in the sky. Here is a video linking together several videos and stills of the spiral in motion (for best image zip ahead to 2 minutes into the video). The Russian military announced later in the morning that it was a failed rocket launch and the spiral is the rocket spinning out of control while jetting out fuel and the light of the sun (which was just ready to rise) reflecting off the spray. Here is a video simulation showing how science thinks the event was triggered. For awhile this morning the internet was abuzz with theories of wormholes, alternate realities, time travel, ufos.