https://phys.org/news/2018-07-family-photos-mars-saturn-hubble.html > In the last months the planets Mars and Saturn have each been in opposition to Earth—Saturn on 27 June and Mars on 27 July. An opposition occurs when the Sun, Earth and an outer planet are lined up, with Earth sitting in between the Sun and the outer planet. During an opposition, a planet is fully lit by the Sun as seen from Earth, and it also marks the time when the planet is closest to Earth, allowing astronomers to see features on the planet's surface in greater detail. > A month before Saturn's opposition—on 6 June—Hubble was used to observe the ringed planet. At this time Saturn was approximately 1.4 billion kilometres from Earth. The taken images show Saturn's magnificent ring system near its maximum tilt toward Earth, allowing a spectacular view of the rings and the gaps between them. Though all of the gas giants boast rings, Saturn's are the largest and most spectacular, stretching out to eight times the radius of the planet.