NASA has shared some pictures of planet Saturn. The pics reveal that Saturn too has aurorae, just like Earth.
However, when it comes to aurorae, the only difference between these two planets is that while Saturn’s aurorae can last for days, Earth’s aurorae usually last for minutes or hours.
NASA Images
National Aeronautic and Space Administration or NASA has released exciting images of Saturn’s Auroras via their Instagram handle. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured a series of stunning photographs of Saturn’s aurora dancing in the sky.
“The bright auroral display in this image corresponds with the arrival of a large disturbance in the solar wind,” the space agency has commented.
NASA Explains
The Hubble telescope and Cassini spacecraft made these observations while en route to Saturn. These pictures suggest that the pressure of the solar wind, not the Sun’s magnetic field, causes Saturn’s auroral storms. This solar wind is a stream of charged particles. NASA has explained everything after releasing the photo.
“Hubble’s unique ultraviolet view of Saturn’s aurorae helped show that these storms are driven mainly by the pressure of the solar wind, which is a stream of charged particles from the Sun. Taken in January 2004, the bright auroral display in this image corresponds with the arrival of a large disturbance in the solar wind”, the space agency wrote in a caption.
According to NASA’s explanation, an aurora manifests itself through a ring of glowing gases circling the polar region of the planet. The collision between the charged particles in space and a planet’s magnetic field causes the auroral displays. The accelerated charged particles are elevated to high energies before streaming into the upper atmosphere.
After the charged particles collide with the gases in Saturn’s atmosphere, it releases flashes of glowing and great energy in the form of infrared, ultraviolet and visible light.
Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph took these ultraviolet images on Jan 24, 26 and 28.
The images have gone viral within a few minutes of release. The post has received about 2 lakh likes on Instagram. The internet users have gone gaga over Saturn’s auroras.
People living in Greenland, Finland, Sweden and Norway are fortunate to view this stunning natural phenomenon from the earth.
