NASA Cassini, Keck and ESO VLT Collaborative Observation of Saturn's Aurora

Composite image of Saturn shows the entire planet, including the rings as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft from the south. 

The green glow represents aurora lights.

CREDIT: NASA/JPL/University of Leicester/University of Arizona

Astronomers using an observatory in Hawaii kicked off a month-long campaign to study the northern lights on Saturn study Sunday (April 21) in a live webcast from Hawaii's iconic Keck Observatory.

During a three-hour webcast, scientists discussed everything from the ringed planet's atmosphere to new discoveries made about the gas giant in the last year.

While speaking with the public via social media, the researchers also used the Keck Observatory to observe auroras on Saturn to understand how the mysterious phenomenon works.

The scientists weren't able to show live-video of the observations, but they did review some major Saturn discoveries during the webcast.

Tom Stallard

"Up until now, it's like we have been looking at the aurora in black and white — and now we're trying to look in color," Tom Stallard, an astronomer at the University of Leicester who participated in the observations yesterday, said in a statement.

"We're hoping to get much more depth to the observations we have taken — filling in a far more complete picture of the aurora as a whole, rather than disconnected parts."

The month-long campaign organized by astronomers from the University of Leicester in the U.K. brings together an international group of observers using the Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn, the Hubble space telescope and the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.

Over the course of the next month, scientists will take observations of the ringed beauty to understand its northern lights.