PHOTO OF THE DAY: NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Captures Saturn and Its Colossal Rings
By NASA information center // July 28, 2024
NASA & SPACE NEWS
(NASA) – NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured the above image of Saturn and its colossal rings on July 4, 2020, during summer in the gas giant’s northern hemisphere. Two of Saturn’s icy moons are also clearly visible: Mimas at the right, and Enceladus at the bottom.
The light reddish haze over the northern hemisphere seen in this color composite could be due to heating from increased sunlight, which could either change the atmospheric circulation or remove ice from aerosols in the atmosphere.
Another theory is that the increased sunlight in the summer months is changing the amounts of photochemical haze produced. Conversely, the just-now-visible south pole has a blue hue, reflecting changes in Saturn’s winter hemisphere.
This image was taken as part of the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project.
OPAL is helping scientists understand the atmospheric dynamics and evolution of our solar system’s gas giant planets. In Saturn’s case, astronomers continue tracking shifting weather patterns and storms.
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