Thread: What causes Hexagonal Craters?

I was just looking at the most spectacular color image of the moon, and I couldn't help but notice the sheer number of Hexagonal and Pentagonal shaped craters. They are mostly Hexagonal, but there are even a few octogons scattered here and there.

http://www.rc-astro.com/photo/id1018_big.html

The seem to be more evident in the older, more eroded craters. Anyone have any thoughts on what would cause that? Happens on every crater filled body we've photographed.

There is also a permanent hexagon on one of Saturn's poles
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...exagon_big.jpg

And Pentagon's have been photographed in the eyes of tornadoes
http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com/hurri...-pentagram.jpg

Perhaps the same force that shapes snowflakes? While every snow flake my be unique, every single one has a hexagonal shape.

It's a pretty obvious phenomenon, but I've yet to hear any good explanations for it.

I'm not seeing anything on the moon. You'll have to point it out for me.

It could just be one of those cases of "out of every 1,000 random crater/weather shapes, one looks geometric." The one really doesn't look like a pentagram but rather some random wisps of clouds. I mean, if you look at a hurricane for long enough, you're likely to see something that barely resembles a geometric pattern.

I don't see them in the craters either.

And BTW, that's a hurricane, not a tornado. lol

I'm with the other guys; the craters are not hexagons in a way that goes beyond confirmation bias.

Now, the entirely unrelated hexagonal cloud pattern on Saturn has to do with the relative rates of periodic feedback loops. Although the forces are completely different, a good example/analogy to this is Bode's Law. The distances of the planets from the sun follow a very simple pattern. And the reason for this is because the solar system formed chaotically, and ironically, chaos tends to produce beautiful and extreme examples of simplicity and order if you give it enough time.

You guys really don't see them? Like I said, it's especially in the more eroded craters. Start with the largest discoloration patches, and then look at the eroded craters.

I'll trace them out on a separate picture, but it's going to take time because there are so damn many of them. Probably hundreds! I really find it hard to believe you people can't see them!

Ok here I traced some of them out very quickly and clumsily. The shapes are actually more apparent without my scribbles on the original, but they just let you know where to look.

http://www.fotofap.com/files/454298_...on_color_1.jpg

There are WAY more than those few I indicated. Once you get used to seeing them, they are everywhere.

Look, 3 of us didn't see shit, so you're just seeing them because you want to see them. Confirmation bias.

The shape of snowflakes depends on the shape of water molecules and the way they fit together. Crystallization is a process of patterns building off of each other from the very small on up. Although I don't know that a similar process happens with craters, I do know that when a meteor collides with the moon or the Earth, or any much larger body, the force of the impact melts the area where it hits, and so it could cause a crystallization of the minerals as they cool and re-solidify.

p.s. I think the geometric shape of many of the craters is fairly obvious.

Here are the two that are most clear to me.
Above is the crater outlined and below is the original.

Yeah, I don't see them either.

Plus, eroded craters? I'm pretty sure there's no atmosphere on the moon to erode them.

Necro this thread to post a possible explanation from the Harvard website: A new explanation for the hexagonal shape of lunar craters

"The possibility of impacts of large meteorites on the thin crust of the early moon accounting for the formation of the hexagonal lunar craters is discussed. Solidified basalts comprising a lunar crust of thickness 10 to 50 km characteristic of the earliest stage in lunar evolution are shown to have a large-scale hexagonal pillar structure, due to the effects of shrinkage. Results of experimental simulations of the propagation in this hexagonal pillar structure of the shock wave generated by the impact of a meteorite of diameter 10 km and mass 10 to the 15th kg on the lunar crust are then presented which demonstrate the pushing away from a central circular shock of pillars resting on a low-friction surface in a hexagonal pattern."

But I suppose Harvard is only seeing hexagons because they want to...

People naturally pick patterns out where they do not exist. Its how human brains evolved. Without going into great detail about it, basically quickly seeing and picking up patterns was a useful skill for humans, and so now as a by product we pick out patterns in anything. Stare at the clouds or even a wall and patterns will form. You really are seeing things that are not there. Some might vaguely seem to fit that pattern, but it is just purely random.

No Alric, hexagonal craters were put there to awaken the knowledge in a sacred few of the existence of a race of technologically masterful creator beings.

The hexagons are real and not impact craters. I am a geologist and the idea of rock breaking exactly along preexisting fault lines to form a hexagon crater is crazy. Thank you for opening your eyes and seeing what you see. The simplest solution is usually correct. These hexagonal features can be found on many of our solar system's moons and planets. They are not weathering features either. They are not random either.
Keep looking. Keep seeing. Keep it up. You are great.
Chris

My guess is that the hexagonal craters are formed by seismic standing waves during the collision. The reason for the number 6? Less than 6 and the regular forces of fluid dynamics break the pattern to form something more circular. More than 6, and it's difficult to tell because impact gardening tends to make things disappear over time. It would be difficult to spot a 12-sided crater.

Well I think it's aliens or transdimensional beings or whatever trying to teach us that the hexagon is the most appropriate shape to dig holes that replicate craters with.

I see lots of geometric shapes. Circular craters everywhere.

GIANT SPACE BEES.
i am being facetious

Originally Posted by Xei

GIANT SPACE BEES.
i am being facetious

One of the best episodes.

I wonder what space honey tastes like.

Where are the flowers?

Space honey is a thick transparent fluid which tastes faintly of sherbert.

Space flowers are colossal membranous and semi-sentient organisms which spend their entire lives floating in the atmosphere of gas giants, where they descend to the nutrient-rich layers at night before riding thermals up to the surface to bask in the sun during the day. They are under constant threat of being eaten by space jellyfish.

Originally Posted by Xei

Space flowers are colossal membranous and semi-sentient organisms

Beings the size of cities...

Anything can be an argument in ED.

I doubt that.

pffft that episode was so emo.

Really, because some kids have bangs and wear too much black eye-makeup, comedy shows aren't allowed to have a little heart?

no, not really.
I actually did really like that episode.