![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/saturn-webb-hubble-featured-800x420.jpg\")
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NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Hubble Space Telescope joined forces to deliver the most comprehensive view of Saturn ever captured. JWST contributed infrared light data, peering at the planet\u2019s surface, while Hubble\u2019s visible light imagery showcases the gas giant\u2019s atmosphere and cloud cover. Together, the strikingly different views deliver a greater understanding of Saturn and fantastic portraits, no less. <\/p>\n
By observing Saturn in complementary wavelengths of light, Webb and Hubble revealed different, equally important details. Webb\u2019s NIRCam, which captures photos in near-infrared and infrared wavelengths, was able to \u201cslice\u201d through Saturn\u2019s thick atmosphere at multiple altitudes, \u201clike peeling back the layers of an onion,\u201d as NASA describes<\/a> it. This lets researchers examine Saturn\u2019s atmosphere in three dimensions, with each layer telling a different part of the planet\u2019s story. <\/p>\n In Webb\u2019s images, Saturn\u2019s famous \u201cribbon wave\u201d jet stream \u201cmeanders across the northern mid-latitudes.\u201d Below that, there are spots that reflect prior storms on the planet, including the Great Springtime Storm that raged from 2010 until 2012. There are other storms visible in the planet\u2019s southern hemisphere in Webb\u2019s photos. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, Hubble\u2019s view of Saturn, captured in visible light by the venerable space telescope\u2019s WFC3 instrument, shows the planet\u2019s atmosphere, rather than its surface. Saturn\u2019s iconic rings also look a bit different in visible light, since they reflect more sunlight in Webb\u2019s infrared image than in Hubble\u2019s visible light shot. The rings are made up of highly reflective water ice. <\/p>\n Hubble also captured the bizarre hexagon<\/a> in the atmosphere at Saturn\u2019s north pole. Initially discovered by Voyager in 1981, the persistent six-sided jet stream long perplexed scientists. There are viable explanations for the unusual shape, but it remains unsettled science. A leading theory today is that while Earth has conditions that prevent a jet stream here from forming a symmetrical shape, Saturn does not feature these limitations. The underlying physics are the same, of course, but the atmospheric conditions are not the same between Earth and Saturn. Scientists have been able to replicate hexagon fluid dynamics on Earth in laboratory conditions, alongside other polygonal shapes. As NASA remarks<\/a>, perhaps Earth is the \u201coddball\u201d planet, not Saturn. <\/p>\n Hubble\u2019s very faint look at the hexagon-shaped jet stream on Saturn is \u201clikely\u201d the last high-resolution image people will get until the 2040s, since Saturn\u2019s north pole is about to enter a 15-year dark winter. <\/p>\n For now, these fresh looks are the best and most complete ever captured of Saturn, and may remain so for quite some time. <\/p>\n Image credits:<\/strong> James Webb Space Telescope images: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI). Hubble Space Telescope images: NASA, ESA, STScI, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC), Michael Wong (UC Berkeley); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Hubble Space Telescope joined forces to deliver the most comprehensive view…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[26969,39035,1161,1162,874,26622,70,16,15,1164],"class_list":["post-855689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-hubble","tag-hubblespacetelescope","tag-jameswebbspacetelescope","tag-jwst","tag-nasa","tag-saturn","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-webb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116305920651285186","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Side-by-side](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Full-Res-For-Print-2_1-800x400.jpg\")
\u2018Side-by-side views of Saturn from NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope (left) and Hubble Space Telescope (right) reveal the planet in infrared and visible light. Hubble highlights subtle cloud banding and color variations, while Webb\u2019s infrared vision probes different atmospheric layers, bringing out storms, waves, and glowing ring structures in striking detail.\u2019 <\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Full-Res-For-Print-5_1-800x347.jpg\")
Webb also captured this wide image, which shows several of Saturn\u2019s bigger moons, including Titan (far left), Janus, Dione, Enceladus, Mimas, and Tethys. These are just a handful of Saturn\u2019s moons, though, as the planet has at least 285, the most of any planet in the Solar System. <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/saturn-hexagon-800x800.jpg\")
Although Hubble\u2019s view of Saturn\u2019s hexagon is quite faint, this 2013 shot by the NASA Cassini spacecraft delivers a great view. | Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute <\/p>\n