Hubble captures seasonal weather changes on Saturn

By Georgina Torbet Published April 28, 2022

Hubble Space Telescope images of Saturn taken in 2018, 2019, and 2020 as the planet’s northern hemisphere summer transitions to fall. — Hubble Space Telescope images of Saturn taken in 2018, 2019, and 2020 as the planet’s northern hemisphere summer transitions to fall. NASA/ESA/STScI/A. Simon/R. Roth

Earth isn’t the only planet with seasons: Other planets in our solar system like Saturn also have seasons, either because their axes are titled relative to the sun or because they have an elliptical orbit. At some points, certain parts of the planet face the sun more often or are closer to the sun, making it summer, and at other times they are tilted away from the sun or are farther away from the sun, making it winter.

Each of Saturn’s seasons is more than seven years long, but Hubble has captured small changes in the planet over the years which show its northern hemisphere transitioning from summer to fall.

Recommended Videos

The images from Hubble were captures in 2018, 2019, and 2020, so the differences are subtle. But you can see the changes more clearly in this animation provided by NASA.

Researchers are interested in the way Saturn’s atmosphere and weather changes with the seasons too.

“These small year-to-year changes in Saturn’s color bands are fascinating,” said Amy Simon, planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in a statement. “As Saturn moves towards fall in its northern hemisphere, we see the polar and equatorial regions changing, but we are also seeing that the atmosphere varies on much shorter timescales.”

“What we found was a slight change from year-to-year in color, possibly cloud height, and winds — not surprising that the changes aren’t huge, as we’re only looking at a small fraction of a Saturn year,” added Simon. “We expect big changes on a seasonal timescale, so this is showing the progression towards the next season.”

In the period over which these images were taken, the equator got brighter by 5% to 10% and the wind speed fluctuated as well. Wind speeds on Saturn have been observed as high as 1,100 mph, and they seem to vary with atmospheric depth as well. The Cassini mission to Saturn, which ended in 2017, gathered an enormous amount of data about the planet and its atmosphere which is still being analyzed, and scientists continue to make new discoveries about how and why the atmosphere is so variable.

Topics

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Space

Webb captures a Penguin and an Egg for its two-year anniversary

This “penguin party” is loud! The distorted spiral galaxy at center, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical galaxy at left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. A new near- and mid-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope, taken to mark its second year of science, shows that their interaction is marked by a faint upside-down U-shaped blue glow.

This “penguin party” is loud! The distorted spiral galaxy at center, called the Penguin, and the compact elliptical galaxy at left, called the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. A new near- and mid-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope, taken to mark its second year of science, shows that their interaction is marked by a faint upside-down U-shaped blue glow. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Today, July 12, marks two years since the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope were unveiled. In that time, Webb has discovered the most distant galaxies known, uncovered surprises about the early universe, peered into the atmospheres of distant planets, and produced a plethora of beautiful images of space.

Space

Hubble finds mysterious and elusive black hole

An international team of astronomers has used more than 500 images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope spanning two decades to detect seven fast-moving stars in the innermost region of Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest globular cluster in the sky. These stars provide compelling new evidence for the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole.

An international team of astronomers has used more than 500 images from the NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope spanning two decades to detect seven fast-moving stars in the innermost region of Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest globular cluster in the sky. These stars provide compelling new evidence of the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole. ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Häberle (MPIA)

There's something strange about black holes. Astronomers often find small black holes, which are between five times and 100 times the mass of the sun. And they often find huge supermassive black holes, which are hundreds of thousands of times the mass of the sun or even larger. But they almost never find black holes in between those two sizes.

Space

See a stunning 3D visualization of astronomy’s most beautiful object

This image is a mosaic of visible-light and infrared-light views of the same frame from the Pillars of Creation visualization. The three-dimensional model of the pillars created for the visualization sequence is alternately shown in the Hubble Space Telescope version (visible light) and the Webb Space Telescope version (infrared light).

This image is a mosaic of visible-light and infrared-light views of the same frame from the Pillars of Creation visualization. The three-dimensional model of the pillars created for the visualization sequence is alternately shown in the Hubble Space Telescope version (visible light) and the Webb Space Telescope version (infrared light). Greg Bacon (STScI), Ralf Crawford (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Leah Hustak (STScI), Christian Nieves (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Frank Summers (STScI), NASA's Universe of Learning

The Pillars of Creation are perhaps the most famous object in all of astronomy. Part of the Eagle Nebula, this vista was first captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, and has captivated the public ever since with its dramatic rising pillars of dust and gas that stretch several light-years high. The nebula has been imaged often since then, including again by Hubble in 2014 and more recently by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2022.