Researchers captured an image of the way Saturn's aurora behaves when the planet's magnetic field is bombarded with charged particles form the Sun.
The researchers believed this image is a "smoking gun" proving that Saturn's aurora is usually caused by the collapse of the planet's "magnetic tail, a University of Leicester news release reported.
When a strong burst of particles hits Saturn it can cause the magnetotail to collapse, which would cause disturbances in the magnetic field and causing brilliant auroras.
The image, taken by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, captured the moment when the magnetic field was disturbed by these particles.
"These images are spectacular and dynamic, because the auroras are jumping around so quickly," Doctor Jonathan Nichols, of the University of Leicester's Department of Physics and Astronomy, who led the Hubble observations, said in the news release. "The key difference about this work is that it is the first time the Hubble has been able to see the northern auroras so clearly.
The camera worked with the Cassini spacecraft to capture a 360-degree of the planet's auroras.
"The particular pattern of auroras that we saw relates to the collapsing of the magnetotail," Nichols said. "We have always suspected this was what also happens on Saturn. This evidence really strengthens the argument."
"Our observations show a burst of auroras that are moving very, very quickly across the polar region of the planet. We can see that the magnetotail is undergoing huge turmoil and reconfiguration, caused by buffering from solar wind," he said. "It's the smoking gun that shows us that the tail is collapsing."
On Earth auroras appear to be green "curtains of light" that have flaming red tops; on Saturn the auroras have are red at the bottom and a brilliant shade of violet at the top.
