Hubble’s Brand New Image of Saturn

  • Released Thursday, September 12, 2019

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

Vertical version

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Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Release date

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.


Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions: