This is an artist's concept of an opulent aerial display of a cherry-red aurora hovering over Saturn's south pole. Auroras are triggered by high-speed particles from the Sun, which electrify the planet's upper atmosphere. The aurora is red because of emission from glowing hydrogen. The aurora is oval because the glowing gases trace the magnetic field lines that converge, like a narrowing funnel, onto the planet's magnetic poles. This image depicts the view at the beginning of the Saturnian spring in the planet's Southern Hemisphere. Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its spin axis and has seasons. The Sun is slowly creeping below the ring plane and is illuminating it as a brilliant arc behind the shadowed disk of the planet. The southern polar region is still in shadow, allowing for a full view of the complete auroral ring. Joint observations with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Cassini Saturn orbiter show that the auroras behave differently from auroras on Earth and Jupiter.
Credits
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Schaller (for STScI)| About The Object | |
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| Object Name | Saturn |
| About The Object | |
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| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
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| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
