  Observations suggest that configurations of points on a sphere that are
stable with respect to a Riesz potential distribute points uniformly over the
sphere. Further, these stable configurations have a local structure that is
largely hexagonal. Minimal configurations differ from stable configurations in
the arrangement of defects within the hexagonal structure. This paper reports
the asymptotic difference between the average energy of stable states and the
lowest reported energies. We use this to infer the energy scale at which
defects in the hexagonal structure are manifest. We report results for the
Riesz potentials for s=0, s=1, s=2 and s=3. Additionally we compare existing
theory for the asymptotic expansion in N of the minimal $N$-point energy with
experimental results. We report a case of two distinct stable states that have
the same Voronoi structure. Finally, we report the observed growth of the
number of stable states as a function of N.
