NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of Saturn on July 4, 2020. Two of Saturn’s icy moons are clearly visible in this exhibit: Mimas on the right and Enceladus at the bottom. This image is taken as part of the Legacy of Outer Planet Atmospheres (OPAL) project. OPAL is helping scientists understand the atmospheric dynamics and evolution of gas giant planets in our solar system. In the case of Saturn, astronomers continue to track changing weather patterns and storms. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), MH Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and Team OPAL
Saturn he is truly the lord of the rings in this latest snapshot of POT‘s Hubble space telescope, taken on July 4, 2020, when the opulent giant world was 839 million miles from Earth. This new image of Saturn was taken during the summer in the planet’s northern hemisphere.
Hubble found a series of small atmospheric storms. These are transient features that seem to come and go with each annual Hubble observation. The bands in the northern hemisphere remain pronounced as seen in Hubble’s observations in 2019, with several bands changing slightly in color from year to year. The atmosphere of the ringed planet is mainly hydrogen and helium with traces of ammonia, methane, water vapor and hydrocarbons that give it a yellowish brown color.
Hubble photographed a slight reddish haze over the northern hemisphere in this colored compound. 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 lead researcher Amy Simon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. In contrast, the now visible South Pole has a blue hue that reflects changes in Saturn’s winter hemisphere.
The sharp view of Hubble solves the structure of the finely engraved concentric ring. The rings are mainly made of pieces of ice, with sizes ranging from small grains to giant rocks. How and when the rings were formed remains one of the greatest mysteries of our solar system. Conventional wisdom is that they are as old as the planet, over 4 billion years old. But because the rings are so shiny, like freshly fallen snow, a competitive theory is that they may have formed during the age of dinosaurs. Many astronomers agree that there is no satisfactory theory that explains how the rings could have formed in the last few hundred million years. “However, NASA Cassini Measurements of small-grained spacecraft raining down into Saturn’s atmosphere suggest that rings can only last 300 million years longer, which is one of the arguments for an early age of the ring system, “said the team member. Michael Wong from University of California, Berkeley.
Two of Saturn’s icy moons are clearly visible in this exhibition: Mimas on the right and Enceladus at the bottom.
This image is taken as part of the Legacy of Outer Planet Atmospheres (OPAL) project. OPAL is helping scientists understand the atmospheric dynamics and evolution of gas giant planets in our solar system. In the case of Saturn, astronomers continue to track changing weather patterns and storms.
The Hubble Space Telescope is an international cooperation project between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts scientific operations for Hubble. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, DC
