As observed during NASA’s Cassini Expedition, Saturn’s blue and golden brown constantly change color with the seasons.
When Explorer Cassini first put Saturn into orbit, scientists discovered the color blue that covered the planet’s northern hemisphere. Since then, Saturn has experienced seasonal color changes. Currently, the northern part of the planet is in summer, while the south is preparing for winter.
The seasonal change means that ultraviolet radiation is active in the northern area, creating layers of fog covering this pale yellow colored land. In contrast, in the southern hemisphere, the decreasing radiation activity causes the fog cover to gradually disappear. In addition, the presence of the belt layer increases the color effect in the southern part of Saturn.
According to the team of images returned to Earth by explorer Cassini, as the fog cover decreases and the atmosphere becomes clearer, Saturn turns pale blue.
This is the opportunity for sunlight to penetrate the planet through molecules of light that make the sky bluer similar to that of Earth. The presence of methane mainly absorbed in the red color of the spectrum causes Saturn to take on its characteristic blue color.
Although Saturn has four seasons similar to Earth, Saturn is actually 29.5 times longer than Earth per year.
“These little annual changes make Saturn’s color bands so fascinating. As Saturn moves in the direction,” said Amy Simon, a planet specialist at NASA’s Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. In the northern hemisphere, we see that the polar and equatorial regions are changing. , but we also see that the atmosphere changes during this period. What we have seen is a small variation between years. in terms of color, possibly the altitude of clouds and wind – although these changes are not significant, as we are only looking at a fraction of a year of Saturn. Seasonal time, so this shows progress towards the next season.
The point worth mentioning is that Titan – Saturn’s largest moon is located at Explorer Cassini’s observation center. “Titan, Saturn’s largest asteroid and the only planet in our solar system has a thick atmosphere, made up of clouds that generate rains of liquid methane and other hydrocarbons on the surface,” NASA said. This chemical mixture would have been similar to Earth billions of years before the appearance of life, “forming rivers, lakes and seas.”
