Saturn's auroras in a new light

NASA has released new pictures (and a video clip) of the auroras at the North and South Poles of the planet Saturn. They're rather spectacular.

The auroras were first photographed by the Hubble space telescope in October 1997. The picture was released the following year.




Hubble took more detailed photographs of the auroras in January 2005. The image below is a composite of pictures taken on January 24, 26 and 28 of that year.




The latest pictures were captured last year, when Saturn's rings were perpendicular (end-on) to the Earth. This happens only once every 15 years, or twice in Saturn's 30-year orbit around the Sun.




Here are the auroras as captured last year. A video clip follows the picture, showing the light of the auroras flickering in successive photographs.

It's pretty amazing to think we're watching the equivalent of our Northern Lights on a planet that's about 750 million miles away!

Peter