The image below is a new shot of Saturn taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in early July 2020. The image is so sharp that it almost looks like an artistic representation, but NASA claims it is a true image of the ringed planet. . We can see the concentric ring structure around the planet in detail.
NASA reminds us that the ring structure around Saturn is made up of chunks of ice ranging from the size of specks of dust to giant rocks. The image was taken by Hubble on July 4, 2020, when Saturn was 839 million miles from Earth. The image also shows summer in the planet’s northern hemisphere.
The image also shows several small atmospheric storms that are transient and come and go each year when Hubble observes the planet. The pronounced bands in the planet’s northern hemisphere remain and are almost identical to what Hubble observed in 2019. NASA notes that several bands change color with the naked eye from year to year.
Saturn has an atmosphere composed mainly of hydrogen and helium with traces of ammonia, methane, water vapor and hydrocarbons that give it a yellowish-brown color. Some may notice a slightly red haze over the planet’s northern hemisphere. Scientists believe that the haze may be caused by heating from increased sunlight, which could change atmospheric circulation or possibly remove ice from aerosols in the atmosphere.
Astronomers also say that the cause of the red haze could be that the increase in sunlight during the summer changes the amount of photochemical haze produced. Interestingly, the planet’s southern hemisphere that looms slightly below the rings has a noticeable blue tint indicating changes in winter weather. Two of Saturn’s moons are visible in the image with Mimas on the right and Enceladus at the bottom.
