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Spokes Move Along Saturn’s Rings

Seven Hubble Space Telescope images, each taken about four minutes apart, are stitched together to show "spoke" features rotating around Saturn. The puzzling, transient features have defied easy characterization. Their rotation rate does not quite match up with the rotation of the rings or of the planet's magnetic field. The spokes are known to appear during the period leading up to and following the planet's equinox. With the northern hemisphere autumnal equinox approaching on May 6, 2025, scientists are hoping new observations by Hubble will help them to put the clues together and solve the spoke mystery—what are they, and why do they form? Hubble observations will be compared with those made by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in the period surrounding Saturn's last equinox, in 2009. With the Cassini mission completed, Hubble's annual observations of Saturn as part of its Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program will be crucial to studying and better understanding this dynamic world.

  • Release Date
    February 9, 2023
  • Science Release
    Hubble Captures the Start of a New Spoke Season at Saturn
    Read the release
  • Credit
    NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC); Animation: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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Related Images & Videos

Planet Saturn with bright white rings and multi-colored main sphere. Spoke features appear like faint gray smudges against the rings' bright backdrop, about midway from the planet to the rings' outer edge. Above the rings plane, the planet's bands are shades of red and orange, with brighter yellow nearer the equator.

Spokes Spotted in Saturn's Rings

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observation time devoted to Saturn each year, thanks to the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, and the dynamic gas giant planet always shows us something new. This latest image heralds the start of Saturn's "spoke season" with the...

Compass image titled “Saturn: HST WFC3/UVIS—22 Sept. 2022” shows the planet Saturn with bright white rings and multi-colored main sphere. Spoke features (labeled “spokes” indicated in the white circle) appear like faint gray smudges against the ring’s bright backdrop, about midway from the planet to the rings’ outer edge. Above the rings plane, the planet’s bands are shades of red and orange, with brighter yellow nearer the equator. This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the Hubble Space Telescope using the WFC3/UVIS instrument. Several filters were used to sample specific wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different colors to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. The assigned colors listed in the upper right corner of the image are: red: F631N; green: F502N; blue: F395N. The compass graphic points to the object’s orientation on the celestial sphere.

Spokes Spotted in Saturn's Rings (Compass)

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observation time devoted to Saturn each year, thanks to the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, and the dynamic gas giant planet always shows us something new. This latest image heralds the start of Saturn's "spoke season" with the...

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Last Updated
Mar 10, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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