Mysterious spots appear on the rings of Saturn - scientists do not know what they are

Saturn is the sixth and most recognizable planetsolar system. Its most important feature is the presence of six rings, which have their own shade, density and size. The rings of Saturn are called in Latin letters in the order in which they were discovered by scientists. According to the discovery of 2019, they were formed relatively recently, in the period from 10 to 100 million years ago - at that time dinosaurs already lived on Earth! For several decades now, astronomers have been seeing mysterious spots on the planet's rings that appear only at certain times of the year. This phenomenon is called "the season of spokes" and it has not yet been given a scientific explanation. But soon the situation should change - the Hubble telescope will help scientists solve the mystery.

Saturn is fraught with many mysteries - for example, inexplicable spots and lines sometimes appear on its rings

Seasons on Saturn

The planet Saturn is not at all like Earth, becausethat it is a gas giant, which is the second largest in the solar system after Jupiter. However, there is one thing in common between this giant and our house - they have an axial tilt with respect to the plane of their orbit. For Earth, this figure is approximately 23 degrees, and for Saturn, it is about 26 degrees.

Because of this tilt, there are times on Earthof the year. As you know, our planet revolves around the Sun, so the northern and southern hemispheres receive more or less sunlight, depending on whether they are tilted towards the Sun or tilted in the opposite direction. Depending on the position of the planet, summer and winter solstice - an astronomical event in which the Sun is at its maximum (summer) or minimum height (winter). Occurs in spring and autumn equinoxwhen day and night are almost equal in duration.

The video explains in detail why the seasons change on Earth

The planet Saturn also has seasons andsolstice and equinox occur. However, due to its far location from the Sun, a year on Saturn lasts 29 Earth years. Accordingly, the duration of spring, summer, autumn and winter there is about 7 years.

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Mysterious spots on the rings of Saturn

In the 1980s, tworesearch probe Voyager. They recorded that sometimes spots and lines are visible on the rings of the planet, which appear dark from above and light from below. They were especially noticeable on the B ring, the widest formation around the gas giant. Spots and lines are not permanent and can appear and disappear in a matter of hours. According to astronomers, their behavior is impossible to predict, just like predicting what day the first thunderstorm will begin in the rainy season.

Photograph of sunspots on Saturn's rings taken by Voyager 2 in 1981

Further observations showed that these figuresappear before the equinox and gradually disappear before the solstice. Scientists have calculated that the next equinox on Saturn should begin in 2025. Given that the mysterious spots begin to appear four Earth years before this equinox on the gas giant, then the beginning of the "season of the spokes" should have occurred in 2021.

Sunspots on Saturn's rings photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope in September 2022

Recently, scientists led by astronomer Amy Simon(Amy Simon) studied the images taken by the Hubble telescope as part of the Hubble OPAL program. This project is designed to study the atmospheres of distant planets in the solar system and may well help solve the mystery of the periodic appearance of spots on the rings of Saturn.

See also: How NASA will study the largest moon of Saturn on which life can exist

Cause of sunspots on Saturn's rings

In the course of studying the images, it has already been proven that the "knitting season" really began in 2021 - the scientists calculated everything correctly. However, scientists still have not revealed the cause of the spots.

At the moment, astronomers have twoassumptions regarding spots and lines on the rings of Saturn. The first version says that at certain periods clouds of small meteorites pass through the B ring. But this hypothesis is subject to great doubt, because micrometeorites can hardly pass through the rings just before the equinox.

It is possible that micrometeorites periodically pass through the rings of Saturn.

The second assumption sounds more plausible.Scientists believe that the "season of the spokes" may begin due to the strength and volatility of Saturn's magnetic field. Perhaps, when the planet is at a certain angle to the Sun, the magnetosphere interacts with the solar wind and magnetizes the smallest particles of the ring - as a result, some of them rise higher, while others fall below the main plane.

At the moment, this is all the most interesting thing thatyou can talk about the spots on the rings of the gas giant. If scientists learn something new, we will definitely tell about it, so subscribe to our Zen and Telegram.