Animation of Dark Beads in Saturn’s Ionosphere (VIDEO)

Northumbria University

Caption

This video of Saturn’s ionosphere highlights the contrast in brightness between JWST’s infrared observations of the aurora and the dim bead features. The aurora itself is relatively weak, almost impossible to image from Earth, needing hours of integration time to observe using ground-based data. However, the auroral features are at least four times brighter than the brightest parts of the dark bead features, so to properly show the hidden features, the aurora are completely saturated.

Credit

Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/Stallard et al 2025.

Usage Restrictions

n/a

License

Original content

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.