This is a very good image of Saturn

I have seen many images of Saturn, some clear and crisp, some blurry, some large, others small. I think I have the power to tell you that this new image of Hubble is particularly good.

Saturn attracts a lot of attention, what with its rings, its hexagon, its large size and its moons, some of which could even have the conditions of life. I do not really have any reasons or science to justify why this one is good. But when I saw this one, I thought, "Wow … it's a beautiful picture of Saturn." I would say it's even better than last year.

Hubble takes images of Saturn each year when the Earth is closest to the gas giant, at about 1.36 billion kilometers. Scientists are particularly interested in the climate of the planet and its evolution over time. Hubble can take these awesome images because it is able to stay in the direction of the planet for a relatively long time (compared to the imaging window that a passing space probe would have for example), according to a Hubble statement.

Two years ago, scientists ended the Cassini mission, which was aimed at studying the ring planet. They notably crushed the probe in the atmosphere of Saturn. But the researchers were able to gather a lot of information from the data provided by the spacecraft. For example, the rings of Saturn would be only 100 million years old and could last only 100 million years. The rings could also rain thousands of pounds of material on the surface of the planet every second. They also learned that Saturn's huge hex (which alone could be suitable for four end-to-end lands) could be much larger than expected.

It is a fantastic planet, and we are lucky to be able to analyze it particularly well this year.