Webb and Hubble share most comprehensive view of Saturn to date

Infrared and visible observations show layers and storms in the ringed planet’s atmosphere

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have joined forces to capture new views of Saturn, revealing the planet in strikingly different ways.

Observing in complementary wavelengths of light, Webb and Hubble are providing scientists with a richer, more layered understanding of the gas giant’s atmosphere. Both sense sunlight reflected from Saturn’s banded clouds and hazes, but where Hubble reveals subtle colour variations across the planet, Webb’s infrared view senses clouds and chemicals at many different depths in the atmosphere, from the deep clouds to the tenuous upper atmosphere.

Together, scientists can effectively ‘slice’ through Saturn’s atmosphere at multiple altitudes, like peeling back the layers of an onion. Each telescope tells a different part of Saturn’s story, and the observations together help researchers understand how Saturn’s atmosphere works as a connected three-dimensional system.

The Hubble image seen here was captured as part of a more than a decade long monitoring program called OPAL (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy) in August 2024, while the Webb image was captured a few months later using Director’s Discretionary Time.

The newly released images highlight features from Saturn’s busy atmosphere.

In the Webb image, a long-lived jet stream known as the “ribbon wave” meanders across the northern mid-latitudes, influenced by otherwise undetectable atmospheric waves. Just below that, a small spot represents a lingering remnant from the “Great Springtime Storm” of 2011 to 2012. Several other storms dotting the southern hemisphere of Saturn are visible in Webb’s image, as well.

All these features are shaped by powerful winds and waves beneath the visible cloud deck, making Saturn a natural laboratory for studying fluid dynamics under extreme conditions.

Several of the pointed edges of Saturn’s iconic hexagon-shaped jet stream at its north pole, discovered by the Voyager spacecraft in 1981, are also faintly visible in both images. It remains one of the Solar System’s most intriguing weather patterns. Its persistence over decades highlights the stability of certain large-scale atmospheric processes on giant planets. These are likely the last high-resolution looks we’ll see of the famous hexagon until the 2040’s, as the northern pole enters winter and will shift into darkness for 15 years.

In Webb’s infrared observations, Saturn’s poles appear distinctly grey-green, indicating light emitting at wavelengths around 4.3 microns. This distinct feature could come from a layer of high-altitude aerosols in Saturn’s atmosphere that scatters light differently at those latitudes. Another possible explanation is auroral activity, as charged molecules interacting with the planet’s magnetic field can produce glowing emissions near the poles.

Hubble and Webb have already explored Saturn’s auroras, provided insights into Jupiter’s spectacular auroras also seen with Hubble, confirmed the auroras of Uranus glimpsed in 2011 by Hubble, and detected Neptune’s auroras for the first time with Webb.

In Webb’s infrared image, the rings are extremely bright because they are made of highly reflective water ice. In both images, we’re seeing the sunlit face of the rings, a little less so in the Hubble image, hence the shadows visible underneath on the planet.

There are also subtle ring features such as spokes and structure in the B ring (the thick central region of the rings) that appear differently between the two observatories. The F ring, the outermost ring, looks thin and crisp in the Webb image, while it only slightly glows in the Hubble image.

Saturn’s orbit around the Sun, combined with the position of Earth in its annual orbit, determines our changing viewing angle of Saturn’s face and ring.

These 2024 observations, taken 14 weeks apart, show the planet moving from northern summer toward the 2025 equinox. As Saturn transitions into southern spring, and later southern summer in the 2030’s, Hubble and Webb will have progressively better views of that hemisphere.

Hubble’s observations of Saturn for decades have built a record of its evolving atmosphere. Programs like OPAL, with its annual monitoring, have allowed scientists to track storms, banding patterns, and seasonal shifts over time. Webb now adds powerful infrared capabilities to this ongoing record, extending what researchers can measure about Saturn’s atmospheric structure and dynamic processes.

Saturn (2024 Webb and Hubble images, clean)

Side-by-side views of Saturn from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (left) and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (right) reveal the planet in infrared and visible light. Hubble highlights subtle cloud banding and colour variations, while Webb’s infrared vision probes different atmospheric layers, bringing out storms, waves, and glowing ring structures in striking detail.

[Image description: Side-by-side comparison of Saturn observed at different wavelengths and times show how differently it appears in infrared, on the left, versus visible light, on the right. Left image is labeled Saturn, Webb Infrared Light, November 29, 2024. Right image is labeled Saturn, Hubble Visible Light, August 22, 2024. In the infrared, Saturn has horizontal bands, with bands at the north and south poles appearing darker orange and lightening to tan as they approach the equator. The north and south poles glow a greenish-grey. The rings appear in an icy neon white. White dots represent several of Saturn’s moons. In visible light, Saturn’s horizontal bands appear pale yellow, with some bands towards the north and south pole having a light blue hue. The rings appear bright white, glowing slightly less than Webb’s infrared image. White dots represent several of Saturn’s moons]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), M. Wong (University of California); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

Saturn (2024 Webb and Hubble images, annotated)

[Image description: Side-by-side comparison of Saturn observed at different wavelengths and times show how differently it appears in infrared, on the left, versus visible light, on the right. Left image is labeled Saturn, Webb Infrared Light, November 29, 2024. Right image is labeled Saturn, Hubble Visible Light, August 22, 2024. In the infrared, Saturn has horizontal bands, with bands at the north and south poles appearing darker orange and lightening to tan as they approach the equator. The north and south poles glow a greenish-grey. The rings appear in an icy neon white. White dots, representing several of Saturn’s moons, are labeled Janus, Dione, and Enceladus. In visible light, Saturn’s horizontal bands appear pale yellow, with some bands towards the north and south pole having a light blue hue. The rings appear bright white, glowing slightly less than Webb’s infrared image. White dots, representing several of Saturn’s moons, are labeled Janus, Mimas, and Epimetheus.]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), M. Wong (University of California); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

Saturn (Webb image, cropped and clean)

This infrared view of Saturn was captured on 29 November 2024, by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Observing the planet in infrared wavelengths allows Webb to reveal details of Saturn’s atmosphere and rings that can’t be seen in visible light. In this view, Saturn’s rings appear exceptionally bright because they are composed largely of highly reflective water-ice particles that efficiently scatter sunlight.

Infrared observations also highlight structure in Saturn’s atmosphere, including broad cloud bands and subtle variations caused by temperature differences, winds, and high-altitude hazes. Webb’s sensitivity to infrared light allows scientists to probe different layers of the atmosphere, helping researchers study how gases, clouds, and aerosols interact across multiple altitudes. These observations provide new insight into the planet’s complex weather patterns and atmospheric dynamics.

Several of Saturn’s moons are visible in this image. Janus appears near the rings to the left of the planet, while Dione is visible below as a bright point of light. Close to the centre of the image, Enceladus appears near the rings. Enceladus is of particular scientific interest because it harbors a global subsurface ocean beneath its icy crust and ejects plumes of water vapor and ice grains into space from fractures near its south pole.

[Image description: An image of Saturn on the black background of space. Image is labeled Saturn, Webb Infrared Light, November 29, 2024. Saturn has horizontal bands, with bands at the north and south poles appearing darker orange and lightening to tan as they approach the equator. The north and south poles glow a greenish-grey. The rings appear in an icy neon white. White dots represent several of Saturn’s moons.]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

Saturn (Webb image, cropped and annotated)

Credit:

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

Saturn (Hubble image, cropped and clean)

This visible-light image of Saturn, captured on 22 August 2024, by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope as part of its long-running Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, reveals the planet’s softly banded atmosphere and bright ring system.

Several of Saturn’s larger moons appear in the image. Janus is visible to the left of the planet along the rings, while Mimas appears closer to the disk as a small point of light, with its shadow superimposed on Saturn. On the right side of the image is Epimetheus, a moon that shares a unique co-orbital relationship with Janus.

The image helps scientists track seasonal changes, storms, and evolving atmospheric features on the ringed giant over time.

[Image description: An image of Saturn on the black background of space. The image is labeled Saturn, Hubble Visible Light, August 22, 2024. Saturn’s horizontal bands appear pale yellow, with some bands towards the north and south pole having a light blue hue. The rings appear bright white, glowing slightly less than Webb’s infrared image. White dots represent several of Saturn’s moons.]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), M. Wong (University of California); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

Saturn (Hubble image, cropped and annotated)

The image helps scientists track seasonal changes, storms, and evolving atmospheric features on the ringed giant over time.

Credit:

NASA, ESA, A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), M. Wong (University of California); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

Saturn (Webb image, wide view, clean)

This wider infrared view of Saturn was captured on 29 November 2024 by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Saturn’s bright rings glow in reflected sunlight, and Webb’s observations reveal structures at different altitudes throughout the planet’s banded atmosphere. Several of Saturn’s larger moons appear across the field of view, including Titan (far left), Janus, Dione, Enceladus, Mimas, and Tethys.

[Image description: A wide look at Saturn and several of its moons on the black background of space. Image is labeled Saturn, Webb Infrared Light, November 29, 2024. Saturn has horizontal bands, with bands at the north and south poles appearing darker orange and lightening to tan as they approach the equator. The north and south poles glow a greenish-grey. The rings appear in an icy neon white. White dots, representing several of Saturn’s moons, are labeled Titan, Janus, Dione, and Enceladus. Titan is the largest dot, and appears at the far left of the image, some distance away from Saturn and the other moons.]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

Saturn (Webb image, wide view, annotated)

Credit:

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

Saturn (2024 Webb and Hubble images, annotated compass image)

These images of Saturn, captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb and NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescopes, show compass arrows, scale bar, and colour key for reference.

The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).

The scale bar is labeled in miles, kilometres, and arcseconds.

These images show invisible near-infrared and visible wavelengths of light with their colour assignments. The colour key shows which filters were used when collecting the light. The colour of each filter name is the visible light colour used to represent the light that passes through that filter.

[Image description: Two side-by-side images of Saturn, with the left labeled Webb NIRCam, November 29, 2024 and the right labeled Saturn, Hubble WFC3/UVIS, August 22, 2024.

In each image, Saturn has horizontal banding. Saturn is a darker orange in the NIRCam image, and a paler yellow in the WFC3/UVIS image. The planet’s rings are white in both, but glow brighter in the NIRCam image. White dots representing moons are labeled in both images. At bottom right of each image are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The north arrow points to 12 o’clock, the east to 9 o’clock. The scale bar, at the bottom left of each image, reads 65,000 miles/100,000 km/16 arcsec and spans about one-third of each image. Below each image label is a colour key showing which filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color is assigned to each filter. NIRCam filters are F164N in blue, F212N in cyan, F430M in green and F470N in red. WFC3/UVIS filters are F395N in blue, F502N in green, and F631N in red.]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), M. Wong (University of California); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

VIDEOS

Saturn (2024 Hubble and Webb images, clean)

https://esawebb.org/videos/weic2606a/

This video features views of Saturn from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope that reveals the planet in infrared and visible light. Hubble highlights subtle cloud banding and colour variations, while Webb’s infrared vision probes different atmospheric layers, bringing out storms, waves, and glowing ring structures in striking detail.

Credit:

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), M. Wong (University of California) J. DePasquale (STScI), N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)

Music: Stellardrone - Twilight

Fuente: ESA/Hubble/Webb Information Centre

Buscar este blog

GRAFELBERGNOTICIAS