Hubble’s Latest Portraits of Saturn and Mars
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has photographed Saturn, left, and Mars, right, near their closest approaches to Earth in June and July 2018.
The planets were photographed near opposition, when the Sun, Earth and an outer planet are lined up, with Earth sitting in between the Sun and the outer planet.
It’s now summertime in Saturn’s northern hemisphere and spring in Mars’ southern hemisphere. The increase in sunlight in Saturn’s northern hemisphere has heated the atmosphere to trigger a large storm that is now disintegrating in Saturn’s polar region. On Mars, a dust storm has erupted in the southern hemisphere and ballooned into a global dust storm enshrouding the entire planet.
Hubble viewed Saturn on June 6, when the ringed world was approximately 1.36 billion miles from Earth, as it approached a June 27 opposition. Mars was captured on July 18, at just 36.9 million miles from Earth, near its July 27 opposition. This close distance puts Mars at its brightest appearance in the night sky since the 2003 opposition.
Saturn’s portrait is the first image of the planet taken as part of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project. OPAL is helping scientists understand the atmospheric dynamics and evolution of our solar system’s gas giant planets. The yearly observations from OPAL, expected to last beyond 2025 throughout Hubble's remaining operation, will provide a legacy of time-domain images for use by planetary scientists.
Credits
Saturn: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (GSFC) and the OPAL Team, and J. DePasquale (STScI);Mars: NASA, ESA, and STScI
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Saturn and Mars |
| Object Description | Planets |
| 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.; On July 18, 2018, Mars was 0.39 astronomical unit (37 million miles or 59 million kilometers) away from Earth. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Saturn: The HST observations include those from the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) Program (A. Simon) Mars: The HST observations include those from program (M. Mutchler) |
| Instrument | WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | Saturn: June 6, 2018; Mars: July 18, 2018 |
| Filters | Saturn: F395N, F502N, F631N Mars: F275W, F410M, F502N, F673N |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3/UVIS instrument. Several filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Saturn: Blue: F395N Green: F502N Red: F631N Mars: Purple: F275W Blue: F410M Green: F502N Red: F673N |
| 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. |
