Dark Auroral Oval on Saturn Discovered in Hubble Space Telescope Ultraviolet Images
Ben Jaffel, Lotfi; Sandel, Bill R.; Leers, Veronique
Abstract
Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet images of Saturn obtained with the Faint Object Camera near 220 nanometers reveal a dark oval encircling the north magnetic pole of the planet. The opacity has an equivalent width of ~11^circ in latitude and is centered around ~79^circN. The oval shape of the dark structure and its coincidence with the aurora detected by the Voyager Ultraviolet Spectrometer suggest that the aerosol formation is related to the auroral activity.