![]() "It's a fascinating magic trick of nature we only see on Saturn - for now at least," remarked Simon. NASA also explains that while the phenomenon could also occur on other ringed planets like Uranus and Neptune, it has only been observed on Saturn so far. (The Best Answer in 2022) Saturn is a planet that rings like a belt. The spokes appear as the planet gets close to its equinox where the rings are tilted toward the sun. The spokes disappear near Saturn's summer or winter solstice. Like Earth, Saturn also experiences seasons, however since Saturn's orbit is much longer than Earth's, each season lasts around seven years. These new observations from the Webb telescope "are just a hint at what this observatory will add to Saturn's story in the coming years," NASA says, "as the science team delves deep into the data to prepare peer-reviewed results.NASA is hoping that Hubble's new data will either confirm or deny this theory based on the previous data from Voyager and Cassini, which was a designated Saturn probe. "Despite years of excellent observations by the Cassini mission, the precise beginning and duration of the spoke season is still unpredictable, rather like predicting the first storm during hurricane season," explained Amy Simon, a senior planetary scientist at NASA. In the future, additional and deeper exposures from Webb will help astronomers examine fainter rings around Saturn, according to NASA. Over the years, Saturn's atmosphere and rings have been observed by other missions such as NASA's Pioneer 11, Voyagers 1 and 2, the Cassini spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope. ![]() This latest detailed image comes just weeks after the Webb telescope spotted a record-breaking water plume erupting from Saturn's moon Enceladus, which feeds Saturn's diffuse E ring, according to NASA. Launched on Christmas Day in 2021, Webb can study the beginning of time more closely, hunt for unobserved formations among the first galaxies, and peer inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are currently forming. The brightening near the edge of Saturn's disk might be due to high-altitude methane fluorescence (the process of emitting light after absorbing light) or emissions in the planet's ionosphere or both. These images suggest how the ringed planet Saturn might will look when seen through a telescope with an aperture 4 inches (100 mm) in diameter (top) and through a larger instrument with an 8-inch aperture (bottom). Seeing the rings now, even though they are far past their maximum tilt, is not a problem they are quite unmistakable. This page includes an illustration of the changing orientation of Saturn’s rings between 19. But the darker-than-usual appearance of the Northern Hemisphere could be from "an unknown seasonal process affecting polar aerosols in particular," NASA says. Seeing the planet Saturn through a telescope is one of the biggest pleasures available to backyard astronomers. Unexpectedly, "the large, diffuse structures in the Northern Hemisphere do not follow the planet's lines of latitude, so this image is lacking the familiar striped appearance that is typically seen from Saturn's deeper atmospheric layers," according to NASA.ĭifferences in the looks of Saturn's northern and southern poles are normal, according to NASA, as the northern region experiences summertime while the Southern Hemisphere is exiting winter darkness. These exposures test Webb's ability to spot faint moons around the planet and its rings, since any newly discovered moons could help scientists better understand Saturn's present and past systems. The image was taken with Webb's Near-Infrared Camera, known as NIRCam, as part of a Webb program that involves several exceptionally deep exposures of Saturn, according to NASA. Aurorae occur when charged particles spiral into a planet's atmosphere along magnetic field lines. The near-infrared observations of the ringed planet are a first for the highly sensitive telescope, according to NASA - which, at 1.5 million kilometres (nearly 932,000 miles) from Earth, observes the universe with wavelengths of light longer than those of other space telescopes. Recent images by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show that Saturn's polar regions have aurorae similar to Earth's Northern and Southern Lights. ![]() The Cassini division is the largest of the gaps in Saturn's ring system. The ring is so dark that it had escaped observation until the Spitzer Space Telescope detected its infrared radiation. Saturn's moons Dione, Enceladus and Tethys dot the left side, while the Cassini division, Encke gap and rings A, B, C and F are shown on the right side. ![]() The rings, however, remain bright, creating the "unusual appearance" of the planet in this photo, according to NASA. In the image, Saturn itself appears extremely dark due to the near-total absorption of sunlight by methane gas. Astronomers have discovered surprising details about Saturn's atmosphere, using a new image captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. ![]()
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