HUBBLE Profile picture
Feb 9 5 tweets 2 min read
1/ 📢 Hubble’s sharp view captures spokes in #Saturn's rings — the enigmatic features whose presence and appearance vary with the Saturn seasons. The two smudgy spokes can be seen in the B ring, on the left in the image. 👇 esahubble.org/images/opo2305… A close-up image of the planet Saturn. The rings are level w
2/ Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, each of them lasting around seven Earth years. Equinox marks the height of spokes’ visibility, while during a solstice the spokes disappear.
3/ The spokes don't last long and their shape and shading varies, they can appear light or dark. They may be caused by the interaction between Saturn's magnetic field and the solar wind, which may also cause aurorae.
4/ The hypothesis is that spokes are dust-sized, icy ring particles being electrically charged and levitated, but this has not been confirmed. With Cassini's mission completed, Hubble is continuing the work of monitoring changes on Saturn.
5. 📷 @esa / @HUBBLE_space & @NASA , A. Simon , A. Pagan( STScI)

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with HUBBLE

HUBBLE Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @HUBBLE_space

Nov 9, 2022
1/ 🆕 Three moments in a far-off supernova explosion have been captured by Hubble. The progenitor star exploded over 11 billion years ago. This is the first detailed look at a supernova at such an early time in the Universe’s evolution.

Read more: esahubble.org/news/heic2214/ Image
2/ This observation was possible due to gravitational lensing: light from distant stars is bent by the gravity of massive galaxies in the way. This light took 3 different paths through the cosmic lens of galaxy cluster Abell 370, showing the supernova in 3 stages of evolution. Image
3/ Hubble also captured the supernova’s changing colour, indicating its changing temperature. For the first time, astronomers have also been able to measure the size of a dying star in the early Universe. This progenitor star was about 500 times larger than the Sun.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 10, 2022
1/ Following six years of meticulous observations, Hubble has, for the first time ever, provided direct evidence for a lone black hole drifting through interstellar space by a precise mass measurement of the phantom object. 👇

Full story: 🔗 esahubble.org/news/heic2210/
2/ Astronomers estimate that 100 million black holes roam among the stars in our Milky Way galaxy, but they had never conclusively identified an isolated black hole before.

@esa / @HUBBLE_space , Digitized Sky Survey, Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org), N. Bartmann
@esa 3/ Until now, all black hole masses have been inferred statistically or through interactions in binary systems or in the cores of galaxies. Stellar-mass black holes are usually found with companion stars, making this one unusual.
Read 6 tweets
May 31, 2022
1/ Using observations from the @HUBBLE_space , as well as @GeminiObs & the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, researchers explain why Uranus and Neptune are different colours 🔗 esahubble.org/news/heic2209/ Image
@GeminiObs 2/ A new atmosphere model reveals that excess haze on Uranus builds up in the planet’s stagnant, sluggish atmosphere and makes it appear a lighter tone than Neptune.
Credit ⬆: @NASA / @esa A. Simon ( @NASAGoddard ), and M. H. Wong ( @UCBerkeley ) and the OPAL team
@GeminiObs @NASA @esa @NASAGoddard @UCBerkeley 3/ Neptune and Uranus have much in common — similar masses, sizes, and atmospheric compositions — yet their appearances are notably different. Astronomers now have an explanation for why the two planets are different colours.
Read 7 tweets
Apr 19, 2022
1/ 🥳 Happy 32, dear Hubble! To celebrate this anniversary, here is an unusual Hubble snapshot: a close-knit collection of five galaxies: the Hickson Compact Group 40. #Hubble32

Full story: 🔗 esahubble.org/news/heic2205/

Details 👇 Image
2/ This menagerie includes three spiral-shaped galaxies, an elliptical galaxy and a lenticular (lens-like) galaxy. Somehow, these different galaxies have crossed paths to create an exceptionally crowded and eclectic galaxy sampler.
3/ Caught in a leisurely gravitational dance, the whole group is so crowded that it could fit within a region of space that is less than twice the diameter of our Milky Way’s stellar disc.
Read 9 tweets
Mar 30, 2022
Breaking News 📣 #Hubble breaks new record detecting the most distant individual star ever seen. Nicknamed Earendel by the authors, this star existed within the first billion years after the Universe’s birth in the Big Bang 🎆

Full story: 🔗 esahubble.org/news/heic2203/

Thread 👇 Image
📌 The newly detected star is so far away that its light has taken 12.9 billion years to reach Earth, appearing to us as it did when the Universe was only 7% of its current age.
🗨️ "It’s like we’ve been reading a really interesting book, but we started with the 2nd chapter & now we will have a chance to see how it all got started,” said astronomer Brian Welch of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, lead author of the paper
Read 10 tweets
Apr 24, 2020
1/6 Here it is! The anniversary image of #Hubble30 features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbour NGC 2020, part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Credit: @NASA / @ESA and @stsci
spacetelescope.org/news/heic2007/
2/6 To commemorate three decades of scientific discoveries using @Hubble_Space , this image is one of the most photogenic examples of the many turbulent stellar nurseries the telescope has observed during its 30-year lifetime.
3/6 Although NGC 2014 and NGC 2020 appear to be separate in this visible-light image, they are actually part of one giant star formation complex.
Credit: @ESA / @Hubble_Space / Digitized Sky Survey 2
Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(