esahubble_opo9539c October 10th, 1995
Credit: J.T. Trauger (JPL), J.T. Clarke (Univ. of Michigan), the WFPC2science team, and NASA/ESA
This is the first image ever taken of bright aurorae at Saturn's northern and southern poles, as seen in far ultraviolet light by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. The aurora is produced as trapped charged particles precipitating from the magnetosphere collide with atmospheric gases -- molecular and atomic hydrogen in Saturn's case. As a result of the bombardment, Saturn's gases glow at far-ultraviolet wavelengths (110-160 nanometers) which are absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, and so can only be observed from space-based telescopes.
Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA
Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9539c/
Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
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