#Stunningly detailed photo shows Saturn’s summertime

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Saturn is truly the lord of the rings in this snapshot from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, taken July 4, 2020, when the opulent giant planet was 839 million miles from Earth.
NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (NASA/GS)

Saturn is a summer stunner, as evidenced by an incredible shot that NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured of the ringed planet this month.

Hubble took this gorgeous new photo of Saturn on July Fourth, during the summertime season in the planet’s Northern Hemisphere.

In addition to capturing the planet encircled in its famous rings, the exposure also shows two white dots in the sea of blackness. These are Saturn’s icy moons: Mimas, on the right; and Enceladus, at bottom.

The images show a subtle, reddish haze over the planet’s Northern Hemisphere. One possible reason for this is an increase in summertime sunlight, which is believed to potentially change the amount of photochemical haze produced in the planet’s atmosphere, resulting in the slight mist. The South Pole of the planet, meanwhile, has a blue hue — a seasonal feature reflective of it being winter in Saturn’s Southern Hemisphere.

“It’s amazing that even over a few years, we’re seeing seasonal changes on Saturn,” lead investigator of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Amy Simon said about the seasonal atmospheric coloring, in a post by NASA.

The high definition photo may help astronomers better understand how and when Saturn’s rings formed — one of space’s greatest mysteries. Made mostly of ice pieces of various sizes, the rings’ origin date is unknown. According to conventional wisdom, they appeared alongside the planet 4 billion years ago. But since they’re so intensely bright, some believe they may have formed more recently, during the age of the dinosaurs.

Other recent findings about the ringed planet include discoveries about its moon Titan, which is drifting away faster than previously thought, and the cause for its moon Enceladus’ “tiger stripes.” In March, a photographer captured an image of Earth’s moon in which it looks more like Saturn than our familiar lunar body.