The Cassini probe found in Saturn's orbit has managed to depict yet another mystery of the ringed planet. The content of the most recent images that the spacecraft sent back to the Earth have startled experts again. The photographs unveiled a mysterious phenomenon occurring at the planet's northernmost latitudes, namely a strange, large aurora, unlike anything previously observed on any planet in our solar system.

As Tom Stallard, a Research Councils UK Academic Fellow that uses data provided by Cassini on his research work at the University of Leicester in Britain, states, quoted by LiveScience, "We've never seen an aurora like this elsewhere. It's not just a ring of auroras like those we've seen at Jupiter or Earth. This one covers an enormous area across the pole. Our current ideas on what forms Saturn's auroras predict that this region should be empty, so finding such a bright one here is a fantastic surprise".

 

This type of light is created within the atmosphere (particularly in the ionosphere, in the Earth's case) as a result of the interaction with the Sun's particles carried by the solar wind along the magnetic field of the planet. While Jupiter's aurora is steady and sports a constant size, this is not the case for the saturnine one. Under the continuous influence of the solar wind, it perpetually changes its size in direct correlation with wind variations. The image represents Cassini's shot of the aurora and of the atmosphere beneath, captured at two different wavelengths of infrared light.

 

"Saturn's unique auroral features are telling us there is something special and unforeseen about this planet's magnetosphere and the way it interacts with the solar wind and the planet's atmosphere," explained Nick Achilleos, an expert from the University College London group working on Cassini's magnetometer. "Trying to explain its origin will no doubt lead us to physics which uniquely operates in the environment of Saturn," he added.