Man, This New Picture of Saturn
NASA has released a new image of Saturn taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
The telescope captured the picture of Saturn for the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project on July 4.
Hubble has been operating in space for an astonishing 30 years.
This is what a Saturnian summer looks like.
The Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a stunning picture of our sixth planet, Saturn, and it doesn't even look real. The famed telescope took the image on July 4 as part of the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project, which seeks to monitor and study atmospheric conditions on our solar system's gas giants.
Two of Saturn's moons are also visible in the picture. Mimus, which bears a suspiciously close resemblance to the Death Star, is on the right. The icy moon Enceladus, which has emerged as a top contender for finding life out there in the solar system, is beneath the planet.
You like badass planets. We like badass planets. Let's nerd out over them together.
Saturn's hazy atmosphere is composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, with small traces of methane, water vapor, and ammonia. Normally, hydrocarbons give the ringed planet's atmosphere a yellowish-brown hue. In this image, Saturn has a slightly reddish tint—possibly caused by summer sunlight either altering atmospheric circulation or changing the composition of chemicals.
"It's amazing that even over a few years, we're seeing seasonal changes on Saturn," lead investigator Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement.
Here's to Saturn's summer sun.
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