Of Popular Mechanics
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NASA has released a new image of Saturn taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
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The telescope captured the image of Saturn for the Legacy Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project on July 4.
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Hubble has been operating in space for an amazing 30 years.
This is what a Saturn summer looks like.
The Hubble Space Telescope has taken a stunning image of our sixth planet, Saturn, and it doesn’t even look real. The famous telescope took the image on July 4 as part of the Legacy Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project, which seeks to monitor and study atmospheric conditions in the gas giants of our solar system.
Two of Saturn’s moons are also visible in the image. Mimus, who has a suspiciously close resemblance to the Death Star, is on the right. The icy moon Enceladus, which has become a major contender for finding life in the solar system, lies below the planet.
You like rough planets. We like rough planets. Let’s get nervous about them together.
Saturn’s hazy atmosphere is primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, with small traces of methane, water vapor, and ammonia. Hydrocarbons normally give the ringed planet’s atmosphere a yellowish-brown hue. In this image, Saturn has a slightly reddish tint, possibly caused by summer sunlight, either by altering atmospheric circulation or changing the composition of the chemicals.
“It is surprising that even in a few years, we are seeing seasonal changes on Saturn,” principal investigator Amy Simon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center said in a statement.
Here is Saturn’s summer sun.
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