![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2014\/05\/hubble_sees_aurora_on_saturn\/14529508-1-eng-GB\/Hubble_sees_aurora_on_Saturn_small.jpg\")
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\nAstronomers using the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured new images of the dancing auroral lights at Saturn\u2019s north pole. Taken in April and May 2013 from Hubble\u2019s perspective in orbit around Earth, these observations provide a detailed look at previously unseen dynamics in the choreography of the auroral glow.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe ultraviolet images, taken by Hubble\u2019s super-sensitive Advanced Camera for Surveys, capture moments when Saturn\u2019s magnetic field is affected by bursts of particles streaming from the Sun.\n<\/p>\n
\nSaturn\u2019s magnetosphere \u2013 the vast magnetic \u2018bubble\u2019 that surrounds the planet \u2013 is compressed on the Sunward side of the planet, and streams out into a long \u2018magnetotail\u2019 on the nightside.\n<\/p>\n
\nIt appears that when particles from the Sun hit Saturn, the magnetotail collapses and later reconfigures itself, an event that is reflected in the dynamics of its auroras.\n<\/p>\n
\nSaturn was caught during a very dynamic light show \u2013 some of the bursts of light seen shooting around Saturn\u2019s polar regions travelled more than three times faster than the speed of the gas giant\u2019s roughly 10-hour rotation period!\n<\/p>\n
\nThe new observations were taken as part of a three-year Hubble observing campaign, and are presented in a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The images complement those taken by the international Cassini spacecraft<\/a> orbiting Saturn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \t\t\t\t\t \nAstronomers using the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured new images of the dancing auroral lights at Saturn\u2019s north pole. Taken in April and May 2013 from Hubble\u2019s perspective in orbit around Earth, these observations provide a detailed look at previously unseen dynamics in the choreography of the auroral glow.\n<\/p>\n \nThe ultraviolet images, taken by Hubble\u2019s super-sensitive Advanced Camera for Surveys, capture moments when Saturn\u2019s magnetic field is affected by bursts of particles streaming from the Sun.\n<\/p>\n \nSaturn\u2019s magnetosphere \u2013 the vast magnetic \u2018bubble\u2019 that surrounds the planet \u2013 is compressed on the Sunward side of the planet, and streams out into a long \u2018magnetotail\u2019 on the nightside.\n<\/p>\n \nIt appears that when particles from the Sun hit Saturn, the magnetotail collapses and later reconfigures itself, an event that is reflected in the dynamics of its auroras.\n<\/p>\n \nSaturn was caught during a very dynamic light show \u2013 some of the bursts of light seen shooting around Saturn\u2019s polar regions travelled more than three times faster than the speed of the gas giant\u2019s roughly 10-hour rotation period!\n<\/p>\n \nThe new observations were taken as part of a three-year Hubble observing campaign, and are presented in a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The images complement those taken by the international Cassini spacecraft<\/a> orbiting Saturn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":615444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=220084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=220084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=220084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=220084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n