Hubble’s Brand New Image of Saturn

  • Released Thursday, September 12, 2019
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This new Hubble Space Telescope view of Saturn, taken in late June of 2019, reveals the giant planet's iconic rings. Saturn’s amber colors come from summer smog-like hazes, produced in photochemical reactions driven by solar ultraviolet radiation. Below the haze lie clouds of ammonia ice crystals, as well as deeper, unseen lower-level clouds of ammonium hydrosulfide and water.

The planet’s banded structure is caused by winds and clouds at different altitudes. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 observed Saturn on June 20, 2019, as the planet made its closest approach to Earth, at about 845 million miles away.

For more information, visit https://nasa.gov/hubble.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Paul R. Morris (USRA): Lead Producer

Music credits: "Momentum" by Guillaume Bernard [SACEM]; Killer Tracks Production Music

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Thursday, September 12, 2019.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:45 PM EDT.

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