NASA releases stunning new Saturn images—and the gas giant has never looked so good

NASA releases stunning new Saturn images—and the gas giant has never looked so good

By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Claire Cameron

NASA has unveiled a remarkable collection of Saturn images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Space Telescope. These images capture the gas giant in both visible and infrared light, providing an unprecedented view of its dynamic atmosphere. According to a NASA blog post, these images offer the “most comprehensive view of Saturn to date.”

The Hubble Space Telescope captured images in visible light, revealing Saturn’s iconic yellow hues, which result from sunlight reflecting off ammonia crystals and hydrocarbons like methane in its atmosphere. Meanwhile, the James Webb Space Telescope focused on the planet’s infrared light, allowing it to delve deeper into Saturn’s atmospheric layers. Despite being launched over 31 years apart—Hubble in April 1990 and JWST in December 2021—these telescopes together provide complementary data that enhance our understanding of the universe.

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“Together, scientists can effectively ‘slice’ through Saturn’s atmosphere at multiple altitudes, like peeling back the layers of an onion,” NASA said in its blog post accompanying the images. “Each telescope tells a different part of Saturn’s story, and the observations together help researchers understand how Saturn’s atmosphere works as a connected three-dimensional system.”

The images reveal the turbulence within Saturn’s atmosphere, including jet streams, the remnants of storms and, in JWST’s images, a mysterious greenish hue around its poles—possibly a result of atmospheric gases or evidence of “auroral activity” similar to the aurora borealis and aurora australis on Earth. Saturn’s rings of dust and rocky ice, illuminated by the sun, are especially striking.

Hubble has observed Saturn for years, but the new observations and combined power of the venerable telescope and JWST will help astronomers better understand how the planet’s mysterious atmosphere evolves over time.

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