Published on August 28, 2017
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft gazed toward high southern latitudes near Saturn’s south pole to observe ghostly curtains of dancing light — Saturn’s southern auroras, or southern lights. These natural light displays at the planet’s poles are created by charged particles raining down into the upper atmosphere, making gases there glow.
The dark area at the top of this scene is Saturn’s night side. The auroras rotate from left to right, curving around the planet as Saturn rotates over about 70 minutes, compressed here into a movie sequence of about five seconds.
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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
