News Planetary Science

Saturn’s icy rings are probably heating its atmosphere, giving it an ultraviolet glow

Water ice falling into the planet’s upper atmosphere may create an excess UV emission

An ultraviolet composite image of Saturn. The planet is seen in shades of blue with a white band towards the center at at the top.

Glowing hydrogen atoms form the white band in Saturn’s northern hemisphere, seen here in this composite, ultraviolet Hubble Space Telescope image. Researchers propose the hydrogen comes from icy particles that were once in the planet’s rings.

Lotfi Ben-Jaffel/IAP & LPL, ESA, NASA

By Ken Croswell

The rings that make Saturn such a spectacle are probably heating its atmosphere and making it glow at ultraviolet wavelengths.