The Hubble Space Telescope captures Saturn opening a new spokes season.

CTOnews.com, December 23 (Xinhua)-- Saturn is very much like Santa Claus. Almost every Christmas, Saturn sends a special gift-spokes season, but astronomers have yet to figure out the reason behind this phenomenon.

With the help of NASA's Voyager 2, astronomers discovered faint stripes on Saturn more than 40 years ago and radiated outward along Saturn's rings, and then named it the spoke season (Spoke Season).

Astronomers have since observed the spoke season many times, and the Exoplanet Atmospheric Heritage (OPAL) project uses the Hubble Space Telescope to specifically observe Saturn.

NASA and ESA recently teamed up to discover Saturn entering a new spokes season on December 22, 2023, and shared photos and videos. The video attached to CTOnews.com is as follows:

Astronomers have a limited understanding of the spoke season, and the current information is that the spokes are short-lived, just like watermarks, which evaporate over time. The spokes revolve around Saturn, but after about three turns, they disappear.

Astronomers do not know exactly why the spokes appear. One hypothesis is that the spokes come from the strong interaction between charged particles ejected from the sun and Saturn's powerful magnetic field.