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(CNN) - When Saturn was getting closer to Earth this year on June 20, the Hubble Space Telescope captured an image.
Saturn was almost 1.4 billion kilometers from Earth and leaned toward us, showing its beautiful rings in detail. Even the weakest inner rings are seen in this image.
Previously, we could only see images like this if a spaceship visited Saturn.
For example, a hexagon around Saturn's north pole was first seen by NASA's Voyager 1 in 1981. This feature was captured in the new image of the Hubble space telescope. The mysterious structure has no twin at the south pole of Saturn. The pattern is due to the high-speed jet stream of the planet, according to the Space Telescope Science Institute.
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And the hexagon is bigger than it seems: four planets Earth could fit inside it.
But the appearance of Saturn varies. Some features come and go, like a big storm at the north pole discovered by Hubble last year. This year, it is not seen anywhere. But a super "thunder head," as astronomers call it, is visible in the center of Saturn.
Like Earth, Saturn also goes through stations. Hubble saw Saturn during the summer. The vivid amber color of the planet is due to a smog mist that occurs during the summer, where solar ultraviolet radiation creates reactions in the atmosphere.
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And as in Jupiter, the colorful bands are due to differently composed clouds driven by the winds to stack at different levels.
But the seasons last a little longer here, as in Game of Thrones. Saturn's seasons can last more than seven years.
Each year, the Hubble Space Telescope spends some time observing the outer planets of our solar system. At the end of June, during one of these observation periods, Hubble also took a striking detailed portrait of Jupiter.
Hubble participates in the Atmospheres Legacy program of the outer planet, and these images of the outer planets help scientists study the giant planets and their atmospheres. In turn, this allows them to learn more about the Earth's atmosphere, as well as those that may exist in exoplanets, those that are outside our solar system.
Saturn