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In the summer of 2018 the planets Mars and Saturn are, one after the other, in opposition to the Earth. During this event, the planets are relatively close to Earth, allowing astronomers to observe them in more detail. Hubble took advantage of this favorite configuration and imaged the two planets to continue his long-standing observation of the outer planets in the solar system.
Since the launch of NASA / ESA's Hubble Space Telescope, its goal has always been to study not only distant astronomical objects, but also the planets of our solar system. Hubble's high-resolution images of our planetary neighbors can only be exceeded by images taken from spacecraft that actually visit these bodies. However, Hubble has an advantage over space probes: it can look at these objects periodically and observe them for much longer periods than any passing sensor.
In recent months, Mars and Saturn planets have opposed the Earth. Saturn on June 27 and March on July 27. An opposition occurs when the Sun, the Earth and an outer planet are aligned, with the Earth sitting between the Sun and the outer planet. During an opposition, a planet is fully illuminated by the Sun as seen from the Earth, and it also marks the moment when the planet is closest to Earth, allowing astronomers to see in more detail the characteristics of the planet.
The Saturn Opposition – June 6 – Hubble was used to observe the planet surrounded by rings. At that time, Saturn was about 1.4 billion kilometers from Earth. The images taken show Saturn's magnificent ring system near its maximum inclination towards the Earth, allowing a spectacular view of the rings and spaces between them. Although all gas giants have rings, those of Saturn are the largest and the most spectacular, reaching eight times the radius of the planet.
Hubble's new image reveals a hexagonal structure around the north. Pole – a steady and persistent wind feature discovered when flying over the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1981. To the south of this feature a string of shining clouds is visible: the remains of a storm disintegrating.
While observing the planet Hubble also managed to capture images of six of the known 62 moons of Saturn: Dione, Enceladus, Tethys, Janus, Epimetheus and Mimas. Scientists assume that a capricious little moon like one of them has disintegrated 200 million years ago to form the Saturn ring system [19659009] Hubble fired the second portrait of the planet Mars on July 18, just 13 days before Mars approaches Earth. This year, Mars will reach 57.6 million kilometers of Earth. This makes it the closest approach since 2003, when the Red Planet has come closer to us over 60,000 years ago.
While previous images had detailed surface features of the planet, this new image is dominated by a gigantic sand storm enveloping the entire planet. Still visible are the white polar ice caps, Terra Meridiani, the Schiaparelli crater and the Hellas basin – but all these features are slightly blurred by the dust in the atmosphere.
Comparing these new images of Mars and Saturn with older data collected by Hubble, other telescopes and even space probes allow astronomers to study how cloud patterns and structures large scale on other planets of our solar system change over time.
Learn more:
Hubble takes a close-up portrait of Jupiter
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