Hubble took advantage of the unusual edge-on view of Saturn's rings to simultaneously image the light shows at both poles

The Hubble space telescope has captured the dazzling glow of Saturn's twin auroras as they light up both poles of the planet simultaneously.

Video of the cosmic light show was recorded during the Saturnal equinox last year when Hubble had a unique edge-on view of the planet's rings, allowing it to take snapshots with both north and south poles in view.

The rare footage reveals slight differences between the auroras, with the glowing lights in the north being smaller but more intense than those in the south. The effect is caused by Saturn's magnetic field being unequally distributed across the planet and stronger in the north.

Auroras on Saturn, as on Earth, are caused by charged particles from the sun becoming trapped in the magnetic field of the planet. The particles concentrate at the poles where the magnetic field is strongest. The familiar glow of an aurora is created when these energetic particles slam into atoms in the upper layer of the atmosphere.

An equinox occurs at each of the two points in a planet's journey around the sun when light from the star falls perpendicularly to the planet's equator, resulting in days and nights of roughly equal length. Saturn's far-flung orbit means it only experiences an equinox twice every 30 years.