This picture shows the aurora (Southern Lights) of Saturn. The
aurora looks like a blue ring of light over Saturn's South Pole
in this picture. The Hubble Space Telescope took this picture in
2004. Click on image for full size Image courtesy of NASA, ESA,
J. Clarke (Boston University), and Z. Levay (STScI). Have you
ever seen the Southern or Northern Lights? Earth isn't the only
planet that puts on these beautiful light shows, which are also
called the "aurora". Aurora have been seen at both poles of
Saturn, too. The solar wind is a flow of charged particles that
stream outwards from the Sun. When they get to Saturn, some of
those particles are trapped by Saturn's magnetic field. Fast-
moving electrons bounce back and forth in Saturn's magnetic
field, gaining more and more energy. Some of them blast into
Saturn's atmosphere near the planet's poles. The electrons cause
hydrogen gas in the atmosphere to glow. It is a lot like the
glow that lights a fluorescent bulb when electricity flows
through it. Aurora on Ea