CNN Indonesia
Monday, January 1, 2024 08:59 IWST
The planet Saturn is being monitored by Hubble for phenomena that have not been scientifically explained. (HO/NASA/AFP)
Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Space telescope Hubble I recently captured a photo like an apparition mysterious like a ghost in the rings of Saturn.
The image, which is a composite photo, was released by NASA on Thursday last week. The image was taken by Hubble on October 22, when Saturn was about 850 million miles (1.37 billion kilometers) from Earth.
Hubble, as a space observatory, has been orbiting the Earth for more than three decades, just a few hundred miles above the surface.
Astronomers have long known about the puzzling phenomenon of rays within Saturn’s rings. This phenomenon appears as an apparition moving along the rings and can be seen in various positions depending on the planet’s orbital cycle.
Over time, observations have shown that the number and appearance of rays in Saturn’s rings can change with seasonal cycles.
Similar to Earth, this planet has a tilted axis that causes seasonal changes, according to NASA, although each season on Saturn lasts about seven years.
The Hubble Telescope is intended to observe inexplicable phenomena, especially when activity reaches its peak, with the aim of researchers to discover its secrets.
“We are approaching Saturn’s equinox, where we expect activity to reach peak levels, with higher frequency and the appearance of darker rays in the coming years,” said Amy Simon, principal scientist for the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program (OPAL) by Hubble. based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, cited by CNN.
The equinox (the time when the Sun is directly above the equator) of Saturn’s fall is expected to occur on May 6, 2025.
Study of the radius of Saturn
In the 1980s, NASA’s Voyager 2 space probe successfully documented the first traces of the ray phenomenon.
Meanwhile, the Cassini mission, a space probe focused on exploring Saturn, made observations of this phenomenon during the peak of Saturn’s season in the late 2000s.
The latest observations were made by the Hubble Space Telescope earlier this year as part of a new effort to identify the cause of the rays’ appearance.
According to NASA, the rays may appear small in images, but they may be larger than Earth’s in width and diameter.
Scientists will continue to study Saturn’s mysterious fingers during the 2025 equinox in an attempt to uncover an explanation for the sighting.
“The suspected cause of the rays is the planet’s variable magnetic field,” NASA said in a February statement.
“The planet’s magnetic field interacts with the solar wind, creating an electrically charged environment. On Earth, when these charged particles hit the atmosphere, this is visible in the Northern Hemisphere as the aurora borealis, or northern lights,” he added NASA.
Crucially, astronomers suspect that small particles may become charged due to this activity, causing them to briefly rise higher than the surrounding material and create visible bulges.
Researchers hope that Hubble data will prove or disprove the theory once and for all, based on observations collected by Voyager 2 and the Cassini mission.
(rfi/arh)
2024-01-01 01:59:54
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