Saturnian Aurora

Saturn's Rings are one of the most spectacular sights in the solar system. Still, this image from the Hubble Space Telescope offers a striking view of another kind of ring around Saturn - pole encircling rings of ultraviolet aurora . Towering more than 1,000 miles above the cloud tops , these Saturnian auroral displays were thought to be analogous to Earth's . But following the ebb and flow of Saturn's aurora, with the Hubble's cameras and instruments onboard the Cassini spacecraft, researchers are now reporting some surprising results . In this false-color image made in ultraviolet light , the dramatic red aurora identify emission from atomic hydrogen , while the more concentrated white areas are due to hydrogen molecules .