Saturn already tops the list of the coolest-looking objects in our solar system, but a new finding might put it on another level. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers spotted strange, beady patterns spreading across the planet’s atmosphere—features never seen before on any other planet in the solar system.

In a recent Geophysical Research Letters paper, astrophysicists led by Tom Stallard of Northumbria University in the United Kingdom describe their investigations into the infrared emissions from Saturn’s aurora and upper atmosphere. Contrary to expectations, the team discovered “fine-scaled patterns of beads and stars that, despite being separated by huge distances in altitude, may somehow be interconnected,” Stallard explained in a release .

Saturn’s atmosphere

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