In 2025, Saturn’s stunning rings It will disappear. But it won’t be long before we see them again in all their splendor. After all, their disappearance is all a matter of perspective.
The combination of the narrow rings, Saturn’s tilt, and Earth’s own orbital motion makes the rings invisible from our perspective. Jonty Horner, an astrobiologist and astronomer at the University of Southern Queensland, said Saturn’s rings are tilted most of the year, but can be seen fully tilted in March and November. Sho.
That means it will be nearly impossible to observe the rings except with very powerful telescopes. The last time this happened was in 2009, and it will continue to happen for years to come.
“If you want to see a ring, now is the time, because it will disappear in a few years,” Horner said. “But they will come back.”
Saturn’s disappearing rings
There is several complicating factors This allows for the temporary disappearance of the ring. The first is that the rings around Saturn’s equator are relatively thin, Horner said.
Despite having a diameter of a whopping 282,000 kilometers, the ring is only a few meters thick in certain places.
“They extend many times the planet’s radius and are so thin that even if you looked at them completely head-on, you wouldn’t be able to see them unless you had an incredibly powerful telescope. “You can’t,” he says.
Another factor is that, like Earth, Saturn has seasons as it revolves around the sun. However, unlike Earth, Saturn takes approximately 29.4 years to orbit the Sun.
“If you look at Saturn when it has seasons, it will look like it’s nodding back and forth as it orbits the sun, because it’s tilted,” Horner says. The earth changes.
“From our vantage point, we see Saturn nodding back and forth, which means the rings move almost exactly twice during each orbit of Saturn,” Horner says.
Horner says Saturn’s “edge-on” is like holding a thin piece of paper horizontally in front of you. This will eliminate most of the paper. Due to the wobble of the Earth’s own orbit, we rarely see tree rings twice.
read more: How did Saturn form its rings?
temporary phenomenon
But one day, Saturn will lose its rings forever. That’s because, due to its massive size, the planet’s gravity pulls down the ice particles and debris that form the rings. NASA scientists It is estimated that it has completely disappeared. One of these rings will not occur for at least 100 million years.
“Most people seem to accept that over a time scale of billions or hundreds of millions of years, Saturn’s rings will gradually become less impressive and eventually disappear unless they are replenished from somewhere.” says Horner.
Therefore, Saturn’s rings are considered a “temporary phenomenon.” For example, Mars may once have had its own impressive ring belt, and may form one again some 70 million years later as its moon Phobos tumbles inward. collapse in its orbit. Fragments can form rings.
So questions remain about Saturn’s rings, Horner said. “Rings have been known in one form or another for about 400 years,” he says. “You might think we have a pretty good idea what they are, but there are still people studying how long they live and what their origins are.”
But one thing is certain: Saturn’s rings will return once they are no longer visible in 2025. By 2032, the ring will once again face Earth, providing stargazers with an excellent opportunity to observe it. It probably won’t disappear completely for millions of years.
read more: A mysterious planet similar to Saturn steals a ring from a nearby star
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Sean Mowbray is a freelance writer based in Scotland. Covers topics in the environment, archaeology, and general science. His work has also appeared in outlets such as Mongabay, New Scientist, Hakai Magazine, and Ancient History Magazine.
