NASA has released an impressive image captured by the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope of Saturn and its ring system.
Hubble captured this image of Saturn and its rings on July 4, 2020. Two of Saturn’s icy moons are clearly visible in this image: Mimas (right) and Enceladus (bottom). Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Simon, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / MH Wong, University of California, Berkeley / OPAL Team.
Hubble was used to observe Saturn and its rings on July 4, 2020, when the gas giant was approximately 1.35 billion km (839 million miles) from Earth.
The new image was taken during the summer in Saturn’s northern hemisphere as part of the Legacy of Outer Planet Atmospheres (OPAL) project.
“Hubble found a series of small atmospheric storms,” said lead researcher Dr. Amy Simon, an astronomer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and colleagues.
“These are transient features that seem to come and go with each annual Hubble observation.”
Saturn’s atmosphere is primarily hydrogen and helium with traces of ammonia, methane, water vapor, and hydrocarbons giving it a yellowish-brown color.
“Hubble photographed a slight reddish haze over the northern hemisphere in this colored compound,” the researchers said.
“This may be due to warming from increased sunlight, which could change atmospheric circulation or perhaps remove ice from aerosols in the atmosphere.”
“Another theory is that the increase in sunlight in the summer months is changing the amounts of photochemical turbidity produced.”
“It is surprising that even in a few years, we are seeing seasonal changes on Saturn,” said Dr. Simon.
“By contrast, the now visible south pole has a blue hue, reflecting changes in Saturn’s winter hemisphere.”
Saturn’s rings are mainly made of pieces of ice, ranging in size from small grains to giant rocks.
How and when the rings were formed remains one of the greatest mysteries of our Solar System.
“Measurements by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft of small grains raining down into Saturn’s atmosphere suggest that the rings can only last 300 million years longer, which is one of the arguments for an early age of the ring system,” said astronomer Dr. Michael Wong, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.
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This article is based on a press release provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
