In January and March 2009, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took advantage of a rare opportunity to record Saturn when its rings were edge-on, resulting in a unique movie featuring the nearly symmetrical light show at both of the giant planet's poles. It takes Saturn almost thirty years to orbit the Sun, with the opportunity to image both of its poles occurring only twice during that time.
The light shows, called aurorae, are produced when electrically charged particles race along the planet's magnetic field and into the upper atmosphere where they excite atmospheric gases, causing them to glow. Saturn's aurorae resemble the same phenomena that take place at the Earth's poles.
The 2009 Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys observations have allowed astronomers to monitor the behavior of Saturn's poles in the same shot over a sustained period of time and to analyze the planet's northern and southern lights simultaneously. The northern auroral oval appears to be slightly smaller and more intense than the southern one, implying that Saturn's magnetic field is not equally distributed across the planet; it is slightly uneven and stronger in the north than the south.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Saturn |
| Object Description | Planet |
| Distance | The semi-major axis of Saturn's orbit about the sun is 9.5 astronomical units (A.U.) or roughly 1.4 billion km. |
| Dimensions | The planet (without rings) has a diameter of roughly 75,000 miles (120,000 km) at the equator. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The image was created from Hubble data from proposals and : J. Nichols et al. The science team comprises: J. Nichols, S. Badman, and E. Bunce (University of Leicester), J. Clarke (Boston University), S. Cowley (University of Leicester), F. Crary (Southwest Research Institute), M. Dougherty (Imperial College, London), J.-C. Gerard and D. Grodent (University of Liege), K. Hansen (University of Michigan), W. Kurth (University of Iowa), D. Mitchell (JHU/APL), W. Pryor (Central Arizona College), T. Stallard and L. Talboys (University of Leicester), and S. Wannawichian (Boston University). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/SBC |
| Exposure Dates | January - March 2009 |
| Filters | F115LP (UV) and F125LP (UV) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image was originally black and white and recorded only overall brightness. These brightness values were translated into a range of bluish hues. Such color "maps" can be useful in helping to distinguish subtly varying brightness in an image. |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| 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 |
|
| 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. |
