Mystery Smudges Appear on Saturn’s Rings, And We Don’t Know What Causes Them

The Hubble Space Telescope has confirmed that a new “spoke season” is kicking off at Saturn.

These are the times of the Saturnian year, centered around the equinoxes, when mysterious radial smudge marks, like the spokes of a wheel, appear across the planet’s rings.

What exactly causes the spokes is unknown, but their re-emergence, combined with a Hubble planetary observing program, will provide opportunities to study them in greater detail.

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