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Spokes Spotted in Saturn’s Rings

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.

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 appearance of two smudgy spokes in the B ring, on the left in the image.

The shape and shading of spokes varies—they can appear light or dark, depending on the viewing angle, and sometimes appear more like blobs than classic radial spoke shapes, as seen here. The ephemeral features don't last long, but as the planet's autumnal equinox approaches on May 6, 2025, more will appear. Scientists will be looking for clues to explain the cause and nature of the spokes. It's suspected they are ring material that is temporarily charged and levitated by interaction between Saturn's magnetic field and the solar wind, but this hypothesis has not been confirmed.

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    This image was created with Hubble data from proposal: 16790 (A. Simon).

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    WFC3/UVIS
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    22 Sept. 2022
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F395N, F502N, F631N
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Saturn
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Gas giant with rings
  • 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); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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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.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images are 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 hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are:   Red: F631N, Green: F502N, Blue: F395N

Compass and Scale
Compass and ScaleAn astronomical image with a scale that shows how large an object is on the sky, a compass that shows how the object is oriented on the sky, and the filters with which the image was made.

Related Images & Videos

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...

Series of black and white close-up images on the curve of Saturn's rings, with no sphere of the planet visible. Images together create a GIF video showing dark smudges appearing to move along the bright rings of Saturn. One dark area remains distinct throughout, while the other goes in and out of distinction and darkness.

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...

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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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