In 1984 , Voyager 2 flew past Saturn , fill astonishing photographs of the gas giant in resolutions we had never seen before . As well as spotting undulations in the planet ’s rings – the result of a then undiscoveredring - shepherd lunar month – the probe captured trope of unusual dour " radius " in Saturn ’s anchor ring .
These features have since been captured byCassini , and repeatedly photograph by NASA ’s Hubble Space Telescope as part of Hubble ’s Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy ( OPAL ) program to monitor the weather condition on the solar system ’s gas giants .
The glowering radius are not a continuous feature of the ringing , but continue there fortwo or three rotationsaround Saturn . Though they look small , they can be bighearted in breadth and distance than Earth ’s diam . Monitoring of the rings by Hubble let out that the frequency of the spokes varies with Saturn ’s tenacious seasons , appearing more often in Saturn ’s summer .
" We are head towards Saturn equinoctial point , when we ’d expect maximum spoke activity , " OPAL programme principal scientist Amy Simon of NASA ’s Goddard Space Flight Center toldNASA , after Hubble capture unexampled view of the spokes in October 2023 , " with gamey frequency and darker spokes appearing over the next few eld . "
So what is causing the spokes ?
" The run possibility is that spokes are tie to Saturn ’s knock-down magnetic field , with some sorting of solar interaction with the charismatic theatre that gives you the spokes , " Simon explain .
Saturn takes29.4 Earth yearsto circumvolve around the Sun . Due to asimilar tiltto Earth , that means long winters and summer for the respective face of the planet , lasting aroundseven twelvemonth . When the rings are tilted more towards the Sun , the hypothesis is that Saturn ’s charismatic field is bomb by the solar wind , aid more rundle to form .
We still do n’t know for certain how the spokes are mold , but scientists surmise that the interaction between the solar wind and the charismatic field generates static , levitating ice or dust above the rings to spring the rung .
