![]() Viewing Saturn through binoculars will enhance its golden color and depending on your binoculars, allow you to make out a hint of the telltale rings, appearing more like “ears”. This image represents the most detailed look to date at the temperature of Saturn’s rings. Although you won’t be able to view any distinguishing features, like the famed icy rings without an aid, opposition is the brightest the planet will appear – pretty good for something over 800 million miles away! The varying temperatures of Saturn’s rings are depicted in this false-color image from the Cassini spacecraft. It will appear on the southeastern horizon at sunset and you can spot the bright yellowish “star” all through the night until sunrise. Saturn is the farthest planet from Earth easily visible by the unaided human eye. Saturn is not the only planet to have rings, but none are as spectacular or as complex as Saturn’s.(Credit: NASA Solar System) Like fellow gas giant Jupiter, Saturn is a massive ball made mostly of hydrogen and helium. Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest planet in our solar system. ![]() In fact, Saturn remains visible until February 2024, so don’t worry if your local weather doesn’t cooperate with your viewing plans on any particular day. From our vantage point, the Sun’s illumination will allow Saturn to appear bigger and brighter in the sky in the weeks leading up to and after the opposition. Not bad for a telescope that was only designed to last 15 years.ĬNN’s Ashley Strickland contributed to this article.Saturn will be located directly opposite of the Sun – at opposition – on August 26-27, 2023, as the Earth orbits between the two. It has observed planets outside of our solar system and where they form around stars, star formation and death, and it’s even spotted previously unknown moons around Pluto. Hubble has enabled astronomers around the world to study black holes, mysterious dark energy, distant galaxies and galactic mergers. In April, Hubble celebrated 30 years in space, during which time its images have contributed to a raft of exciting discoveries. Hubble spots galaxy moving away from us at 3 million miles per hour This phenomenon is due to the expansion of the Universe, and it is the space between galaxies that is stretching, rather than the galaxies themselves moving. While some galaxies, like the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy, are caught in each other's gravitational pull and will eventually merge together, the vast majority of galaxies in our Universe appear to be moving away from each other. Though NGC 7513's apparent movement away from the Milky Way might seem strange, it is not that unusual. For context, the Earth orbits the Sun at about 30 kilometres per second. This galaxy is moving at the astounding speed of 1564 kilometres per second, and it is heading away from us. Located approximately 60 million light-years away, NGC 7513 lies within the Sculptor constellation in the southern hemisphere. Many scientists believe they are more than 4 billion years old, the same age as Saturn itself, but others say they only came into being a few hundred million years ago, when dinosaurs walked the Earth.Ĭaptured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, this image shows NGC 7513, a barred spiral galaxy. They consist mostly of pieces of ice, but no one really understands how and when they formed. You can also see Saturn’s famous rings in incredible detail. ![]() Saturn is largely yellow-brown in color due to the fact that the atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium with traces of ammonia, methane, water vapor and hydrocarbons. The picture is also sharp enough to show how the color of certain bands changes slightly each year. OPAL scientists are looking into weather patterns and storms on Saturn, with various small atmospheric storms noted in this photo. The image is part of a project named Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL), which aims to improve our understanding of atmospheric dynamics and evolution on gas giant planets such as Saturn and Jupiter. You can also see two of Saturn’s moons in the image: Mimas to the right, and Enceladus at the bottom. Look closely at the photo and you’ll notice a blue hue at the south pole, which is due to changes in the planet’s winter atmosphere. Hubble Space Telescope celebrates 30 years of discoveries and awe-inspiring images ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |