Hubble image archive
Saturn
Hubble’s new look at Saturn on September 12 shows rapid and extreme color changes of the bands in the planet’s northern hemisphere, where it is now early autumn. The bands have varied throughout Hubble observations in both 2019 and 2020. Notably, Saturn’s iconic hexagonal storm,...
- Date
- Jan 1, 2021
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2021-047-01fm5se2b4vrc3bzeyhpwes5ja
Hubble’s new look at Saturn on September 12 shows rapid and extreme color changes of the bands in the planet’s northern hemisphere, where it is now early autumn. The bands have varied throughout Hubble observations in both 2019 and 2020. Notably, Saturn’s iconic hexagonal storm, first discovered in 1981 by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, was difficult to distinguish in 2020, but it is again clearly evident in 2021. Hubble’s Saturn image catches the planet following the southern hemisphere’s winter, evident in the lingering blue-ish hue of the south pole.
Credits
Science
NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley)
Image Processing
Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Image Details
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Saturn |
| Object Description | Planet |
| Distance | At the time of observations, the planet was 9.17 AU from Earth (about 850 million miles). |
| 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 HST observations include those from program (A. Simon) |
| Instrument | WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | 12 Sep 2021 |
| Filters | F395N, F502N, F631N |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFC3 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample medium 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: Blue: F395N, Green: F502N, Red: F631N |
More Images From This Period
Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
View on NASA.gov