Scientists have been puzzled by the dark shadows on the planet's rings. NASA's Hubble telescope spotted several dancing around the ringed planet in October. Business Insider subscribers get exclusive access to this story. The red arrows are pointing to the photo of the spokes taken by the Voyager 2 in 1981 when it was only 2.5 million miles away. There are three people in the center of this photo, which was taken earlier this year. NASA said that spokes can grow to lengths longer than our planet. The charged particles in the solar wind are able to damage the magnetic field.
When the solar wind hits the magnetic field at a million miles per hour, it's going to cause some effects. Scientists think it may cause the right conditions for the ethereal spokes on the rings to pop up. The leading theory is that the spokes are tied to the magnetic field of the planet. We're going for max spoke activity soon.
It's hard to imagine that Earth is more than 900 million miles away from the planet.
NASA predicts that more spokes will be coming soon. Because even though scientists aren't sure what spokes are or what causes them, they're certain from observations over the decades that spokes vary with the seasons. The rings ofSaturn are made up of individual chunks of rock, dust, and ice.
Simon said that "maximum spoke activity, with higher Frequency and darker spokes, will appear over the next few years." Maybe this will be the decade when scientists solve the spoke mystery.