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Hubble Provides the First Images of Saturn’s Aurorae

First Image Ever Taken of Saturn's Aurora
(Top) - This is the first image ever taken of bright aurorae at Saturn's northern and southern poles, as seen in far ultraviolet light by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble resolves a luminous, circular band centered on the north...

The Hubble telescope has taken the first picture of bright aurorae at Saturn's northern and southern poles [top picture]. The picture at the bottom was taken in visible light.

Hubble's far-ultraviolet-light image resolves a luminous, circular band centered on the north pole, where an enormous curtain of light rises as far as 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) above the cloud tops. This curtain changed rapidly in brightness and extent over the two-hour period of observations.

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Last Updated
Mar 20, 2025
Contact
Media

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

Credits

J.T. Trauger (JPL), J.T. Clarke (Univ. of Michigan), the WFPC2 science team, and NASA