Hubble Snaps New Image of Saturn and Its Ring System

Saturn is so beautiful that astronomers cannot resist using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to take yearly snapshots of the gas giant when it is at its closest distance to Earth. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) observed Saturn on June 20, 2019 as the ringed world made its closest approach to Earth this year, at 808 million miles (1.36 billion km) away.

Hubble observed Saturn on June 20, 2019 as the planet made its closest approach to Earth this year, at approximately 808 million miles away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / M.H. Wong, University of California, Berkeley / OPAL Team.

Saturn hosts many recognizable features, most notably its trademark ring system, which is now tilted towards Earth. This gives us a magnificent view of its bright icy structure.

Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens first identified the rings in 1655 and thought they were a continuous disk encircling the planet, but we now know them to be composed of orbiting particles of ice and dust.

Though all of the gas giants boast rings, Saturn’s are the largest and most spectacular.

The age of Saturn’s ring system continues to be debated. And, even more perplexingly, it’s unknown what cosmic event formed the rings.

Another mysterious feature is the long-lasting hexagon-shaped structure circling the planet’s north pole.

It is a mysterious six-sided pattern caused by a high-speed jetstream. The hexagon is so large that four Earths could fit inside its boundaries.

Other features, however, are not as long-lasting. A large storm in the north polar region spotted by Hubble last year has disappeared.

Smaller, convective storms, such as the one just above the center of the planet’s image, also come and go.

Saturn’s amber colors come from summer smog-like hazes, produced in photochemical reactions driven by solar ultraviolet radiation.

Below the haze lie clouds of ammonia ice crystals, as well as deeper, unseen lower-level clouds of ammonium hydrosulphide and water.

The planet’s banded structure is caused by the winds and clouds at different altitudes.

Saturn’s appearance changes with its seasons, caused by the planet’s 27-degree axial tilt. This image was taken during summer in the planet’s northern hemisphere.

This image is the second in a yearly series of snapshots taken as part of the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project.