Scientists observe a brand-new season on planet Saturn
Just a week back, NASA’s James Webb Telescope discovered brand-new moons of Jupiter. And now, the Hubble Space Telescope has found a brand-new season on the planet Saturn.
As previously known, Saturn, just like Earth had four distinct seasons as it is also tilted on its own axis. However, unlike Earth, Saturn has a larger orbit, which is why, each season is equivalent to seven Earth years.
But now, another season called the ‘spoke season’ has been captured by the NASA telescope. Saturn has spokes around it throughout all the seasons except during summer and winter solstices. Spokes are light and dark radial markings revolving around the planet along with the rings.
Okay, so what exactly happens during the spoke season? Well, the season is not like any other. It has its own features. Now, with the summer solstice of Saturn approaching (scheduled on 6th May 2025), the spokes have started to become increasingly prominent and thus noticeable. This has pushed astronomers to deem this period as a distinct new season called the spoke season.
While the characteristics of the spoke season on Saturn are still a mystery, one thing that the scientists know for sure is that the spokes are a result of the planet’s variable magnetic field. To put matters into perspective, when Earth’s magnetic fields interact with the solar wind, it generates an electrically charged environment and results in the aurora (borealis in the Northern hemisphere and australis in the Southern hemisphere). Similarly, on Saturn, instead of aurora, spokes become visible.
What’s more fascinating is that just like Saturn’s rings, these spokes are also dusty and icy in nature and contains electric charges as well, thus becoming distinctly visible.
In case you are wondering that this is the first time that the scientists have come across the spokes, that’s not true. In fact, they have known about it since NASA’s 1980 Voyager Mission. But the fact that it can bring forth a brand-new season on the planet and can appear and disappear depending on the planet’s tilt was unknown, until recently.
Okay, but what changed now? Well, now we have NASA’s OPAL (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy) programme that uses the Hubble Space Telescope to study the planets up close, both inside and outside the solar system.
Sources also cite that the Hubble Telescope will continue long-term monitoring of the changes on Saturn and other planets and also learn more about the spoke season. In fact, archived data from an earlier NASA mission called Cassini will be combined with latest and upcoming data using near-infrared, UV wavelengths of light mechanism to give a more complete picture of the spoke season. Priority is of course determining the exact start and end of the spoke season, that still looks like a challenge. Scientists believe that studying the spokes will also reveal more about Saturn’s ring phenomena.