Saturn's chaotic atmosphere revealed in most comprehensive view yet by James Webb and Hubble telescopes

Two images of Saturn from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope show different aspects of the planet, from its atmosphere to its orbiting moons. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael Wong (UC Berkeley); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Saturn may be famous for its rings, but it has long fascinated scientists for another reason: its restless atmosphere , which is shaped by fierce winds, stubborn megastorms and strange weather patterns that can linger for years. Now, two new views from the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes are cutting through the ringed planet's clouds, giving researchers what NASA calls the "most comprehensive view of Saturn to date." Together, the images let researchers "slice" through Saturn's atmosphere at different heights. The paired observations capture one of Saturn's strangest landmarks: the famous hexagon at the north pole. According to NASA, the faint edges of the six-sided jet stream appear in both images. These pictures could be some of the last high-resolution views of the hexagon until the 2040s, as Saturn's north pole is about to tip into 15 years of winter darkness. Article continues below Studying Saturn's atmosphere not only allows scientists to understand how large, planet-size storms grow and thrive but also gives further insight into how the planet formed and evolved over billions of years. A planet seen two ways In August 2024, Hubble took its visible-light image of Saturn as part of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program, a decade-long project that tracks the outer planets annually. The James Webb Space Telescope ( JWST ) captured its infrared image a few months later, in November 2024. Those observations, taken 14 weeks apart, showed the ringed planet shifting from northern summer toward its 2025 equinox. RELATED STORIES — 'Completely unexplained': James Webb telescope finds strange 'dark beads' in Saturn's atmosphere — Saturn's largest moon may actually be 2 moons in 1 — and helped birth the planet's iconic rings — We might have been completely wrong about the origin of Saturn's rings, new study claims The two telescopes saw very different Saturns. While Hubble captured Saturn's pale-yellow bands and brilliant-white rings, JWST's infrared