Astronomers have woven NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of Saturn, its rings, and several of its moons into three movies. Each movie highlights unique times in the planet’s 30-year waltz around the Sun. Two of the movies show the motion of several of Saturn’s moons when the planet’s rings were tilted nearly edge-on to Earth and to the Sun.
These edge-on alignments of the rings occur roughly once every 15 years. Another movie presents a clear view of Saturn’s Southern Hemisphere when the planet’s rings were at maximum tilt toward Earth. Hubble snapped only about a dozen images during each of these three events, so astronomers created software to extend the photos into the hundreds of images needed for a movie.
Source: Space Telescope Science Institute
Citation:
Saturn Stars in Three Hubble Movies (2007, March 20)
retrieved 22 September 2024
from https://phys.org/news/2007-03-saturn-stars-hubble-movies.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.