Hubble image archive
Spokes Spotted in Saturn's Rings (Compass)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observation time devoted to Saturn each year, thanks to the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, and the dynamic gas giant planet always shows us something new. This latest image heralds the start of Saturn's "spoke season" with the ap...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2023
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2023-005-01grs3s8v1rxk47p9ccatx3jkv
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observation time devoted to Saturn each year, thanks to the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, and the dynamic gas giant planet always shows us something new. This latest image heralds the start of Saturn's "spoke season" with the appearance of two smudgy spokes (shown in the white circle) in the B ring, on the left in the image.
The shape and shading of spokes varies—they can appear light or dark, depending on the viewing angle, and sometimes appear more like blobs than classic radial spoke shapes, as seen here. The ephemeral features don't last long, but as the planet's autumnal equinox approaches on May 6, 2025, more will appear. Scientists will be looking for clues to explain the cause and nature of the spokes. It's suspected they are ring material that is temporarily charged and levitated by interaction between Saturn's magnetic field and the solar wind, but this hypothesis has not been confirmed.
Credits
Science
NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC)
Image Processing
Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Saturn |
| Object Description | Gas giant with rings |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created with Hubble data from proposal: (A. Simon). |
| Instrument | WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | 22 Sept. 2022 |
| Filters | F395N, F502N, F631N |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the Hubble Space Telescope using the WFC3/UVIS instrument. Several filters were used to sample specific wavelength ranges. 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: Red: F631N, Green: F502N, Blue: F395N |
More Images From This Period
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov