Astronomy Picture of the Day - Spokes on Saturn's B Ring

NASA ^ | 5 Aug, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Brad Croslin Text: Keighley Rockcliffe (NASA GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II)

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Don’t get spooked by Saturn’s ghostly spokes! Today we feature a nearly two-hour timelapse of Saturn and its rings looping forwards and backwards. A day on Saturn is only 10 hours long, so two hours of observation covers quite a bit of its rotation. If you look closely, a ghoulish shadow appears and disappears as Saturn’s B ring rotates. Decades of observation with Voyager 2, Cassini, and Hubble show the appearance of Saturn’s spokes varies with the planet’s seasons. Like Earth, Saturn’s spin axis is tilted compared to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. During Saturn’s equinox, the rings are less tilted away from the Sun and the planet receives more evenly distributed sunlight and solar wind. Although their origin is still uncertain, Saturn’s spokes may be shadows of and reflections off of dust and ice levitating above the rings caused by electromagnetic interactions between the solar wind and the planet’s magnetic field.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[SkyDancer]

Nice shots.

[Verginius Rufus]

Spokes on Saturn's B Ring.

Trump's fault. Hakeem will make it an item on the impeachment agenda next year if the Democrats regain control of the House.

[Red Badger]

Build a giant playing card and stick in there!................

[z3n]

When asked if they looked more like waves, Saturn’s spokesperson could not be reached

[DannyTN]

Somebody has already stolen the spokes.

I don’t see spokes. I see a dark smudge on the ring.

But what worries me is that the ring goes one direction then reverses and comes back then reverses again. Changing directions is not normal behavior for objects orbiting a planet. This must be some form of planetary defense.

[dayglored]

> But what worries me is that the ring goes one direction then reverses and comes back then reverses again. Changing directions is not normal behavior for objects orbiting a planet. This must be some form of planetary defense.

I think it is because the video is described as a loop that reverses and repeats.

[No name given]

Wow.

[DannyTN]

a loop. Good, we can use that video feed to trick Saturn’s security systems during our sneak attack.

[telescope115]

The Cassini probe took closeups of the rings during its mission. There were lots of interesting things- “propellers”, raised edges- disturbances in the edges of the rings caused by tiny moonlets, or sheperd moons in the gaps between the rings. I’m disappointed that Cassini never got close enough to resolve individual ring fragments. THAT was what I was waiting for….