Hubble captures the start of a new 'spoke' season of Saturn: NASA
The Hindu
On Earth, when those charged particles hit the atmosphere this is visible in the northern hemisphere as the aurora borealis, or northern lights.
In a latest image of Saturn captured by National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Hubble Space Telescope, the appearance of spokes on the planet's rings heralded the start of a new 'spoke' season, according to a statement by NASA.
Scientists will be looking for clues to explain the cause and nature of the spokes, the statement said.
The suspected culprit for the spokes is the planet's variable magnetic field, the statement said.
Planetary magnetic fields interact with the solar wind, creating an electrically charged environment.
On Earth, when those charged particles hit the atmosphere this is visible in the northern hemisphere as the aurora borealis, or northern lights, NASA said.
Scientists think that the smallest, dust-sized icy ring particles can become charged as well, which temporarily levitates those particles above the rest of the larger icy particles and boulders in the rings, NASA said.
Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, though because of Saturn's much larger orbit, each season lasts approximately seven Earth years, the space agency said.
