The rings of Saturn shine in the new Hubble portrait



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Saturn is so beautiful that astronomers can not resist the use of the Hubble Space Telescope to take annual snapshots of the ringed world when it is at its closest distance from the Earth.

These images, however, are more than just beauty pics. They reveal a planet with a turbulent and dynamic atmosphere. This year's Hubble offer, for example, shows that a large storm visible in the Hubble image in 2018 in the North Polar Region has disappeared. Smaller storms appear like popcorn in a microwave oven before disappearing just as quickly. Even the striped structure of the planet reveals subtle changes of color.

But the last picture shows a lot of things that have not changed. The mysterious six-sided motif, called "hexagon", still exists on the North Pole. Caused by a stream of high-speed jets, the hexagon was first discovered in 1981 by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft.

The signature rings of Saturn are still breathtaking. The image reveals that the ring system is tilted towards the Earth, offering viewers a magnificent look at the glossy and glossy structure. Hubble solves many loops and weaker inner rings.

This image reveals unprecedented clarity, seen previously only in snapshots taken by a NASA spacecraft visiting a distant planet. Astronomers will continue their annual monitoring of the planet to monitor changing weather conditions and identify other changes. Second in the annual series, this image is part of the OPAL project (Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy). OPAL helps scientists understand the atmospheric dynamics and evolution of the gaseous giant planets of our solar system.

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