Hubble captures Saturn's amazing light show!

Fresh stuff from the amazing Hubble!

In January and March 2009, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took advantage of a rare opportunity to record Saturn when its rings were edge-on, resulting in a unique movie featuring the nearly symmetrical light show at both of the giant planet's poles. It takes Saturn almost thirty years to orbit the Sun, with the opportunity to image both of its poles occurring only twice during that time.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/9e4cefd894c1.jpg[/atsimg]

Higher Resolution

The northern auroral oval appears to be slightly smaller and more intense than the southern one, implying that Saturn's magnetic field is not equally distributed across the planet; it is slightly uneven and stronger in the north than the south.

Source: Hubble

Compiled HD video from Hubble:





[edit on 16/2/2010 by serbsta]

those poles are flippy!
what's up with that ?

reply to post by serbsta
Hi Serb,
Thanks for the post. The auroral oval is something I never heard of before, so I'm seeing it before I know what it is, although it is a known observation. This is a link for an "explanation"

cat.inist.fr...

Of course I knew all along what it is

[edit on 16-2-2010 by smurfy]

Bit of sad news in regards to this from a TechJournal article:

Sadly, this is the only chance you’ll get at having Saturn’s aurorae as your desktop wallpaper, as the angle from which they can be viewed at is only possible twice every 30 years, and the Hubble telescope will no longer be used when the next opportunity comes along.

thetechjournal.com...

very nice video thanks for posting

Excellent find! A truly amazing series of photographs.

But what interests me more than the aurora is a strange band around the planet's equator. It's extremely wide and seems to fluctuate wildly contrary to the spin of the equinoxes.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed these but I present them below with a red line indicating the tilt of the band, whose edges appear on either side of the line. Check it out:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/3f3bbe328442.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/64c8058efd6b.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2d3951113329.jpg[/atsimg]
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/02e1145f721e.jpg[/atsimg]

What do you think