Saturn (Closest Approach in 2018)

The Hubble Space Telescope was used to observe Saturn on June 6, 2018, when Saturn was only approximately 1.36 billion miles from Earth, nearly as close to us as it ever gets. Saturn’s magnificent ring system is near its maximum tilt toward Earth (which was in 2017). Though all of the gas giants in our solar system boast rings, Saturn’s are the largest and most spectacular, stretching out eight times the radius of the planet. Saturn’s colors come from hydrocarbon hazes above the ammonia crystals in the upper cloud layers. Unseen lower-level clouds are either ammonium hydrosulfide or water. The planet’s banded structure is caused by the winds and the clouds at different altitudes. For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2018-29