{"id":10585,"date":"2023-11-22T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=10585"},"modified":"2023-11-11T15:13:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-11T15:13:55","slug":"will-saturns-rings-really-disappear-by-2025-an-astronomer-explains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/will-saturns-rings-really-disappear-by-2025-an-astronomer-explains\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Saturn\u2019s rings really \u2018disappear\u2019 by 2025? An astronomer\u00a0explains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n \n
\n \n NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\nJonti Horner<\/a>, University of Southern Queensland<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

If you can get your hands on a telescope, there are few sights more spectacular than the magnificent ringed planet \u2013 Saturn<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Currently, Saturn is clearly visible in the evening sky<\/a>, at its highest just after sunset. It\u2019s the ideal time to use a telescope or binoculars to get a good view of the Solar System\u2019s sixth planet and its famous rings.<\/p>\n\n

But in the past few days, a slew of articles have run like wildfire through social media. Saturn\u2019s rings, those articles claim, are rapidly disappearing<\/a> \u2013 and will be gone by 2025!<\/p>\n\n

So what\u2019s the story? Could the next couple of months, before Saturn drops out of view in the evening sky, really be our last chance to see its mighty rings? <\/p>\n\n

The short answer is no<\/strong>. While it\u2019s true the rings will become almost invisible from Earth in 2025, this is neither a surprise nor reason to panic. The rings will \u201creappear\u201d soon thereafter. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n\n

Tipping and tilting Earth<\/h2>\n\n

To understand why our view of Saturn changes, let\u2019s begin by considering Earth on its constant journey around the Sun. That journey takes us through the seasons \u2013 from winter to spring, summer and autumn, then back again. <\/p>\n\n

What causes the seasons? Put simply, Earth is tilted towards one side, as seen from the Sun. Our equator is tilted by about 23.5 degrees from the plane of our orbit. <\/p>\n\n

\n \"A<\/a>\n
\n Earth has seasons because its axis is tilted. The axis always points in the same direction as our planet orbits the Sun.<\/span>\n Bureau of Meteorology<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The result? As we move around the Sun, we alternately tip one hemisphere and then the other towards our star. When your home hemisphere is tilted more towards the Sun, you get longer days than nights and experience spring and summer. When you\u2019re tilted away, you get shorter days and longer nights, and experience autumn and winter. <\/p>\n\n

From the Sun\u2019s viewpoint, Earth appears to \u201cnod\u201d up and down, alternately showing off its hemispheres as it moves around our star. Now, let\u2019s move on to Saturn.<\/p>\n\n

Saturn, a giant tilted world<\/h2>\n\n

Just like Earth, Saturn experiences seasons, but more than 29 times longer than ours. Where Earth\u2019s equator is tilted by 23.5 degrees, Saturn\u2019s equator has a 26.7 degree tilt. The result? As Saturn moves through its 29.4-year orbit around our star, it also appears to nod up and down as seen from both Earth and the Sun.<\/p>\n\n

What about Saturn\u2019s rings? The planet\u2019s enormous ring system, comprised of bits of ice, dust and rocks, spreads out over a huge distance \u2013 just over 280,000km from the planet<\/a>. But it\u2019s very thin \u2013 in most places, just tens of metres thick. The rings orbit directly above Saturn\u2019s equator and so they too are tilted to the plane of Saturn\u2019s orbit. <\/p>\n\n

\n \"Saturn<\/a>\n
\n A mosaic of images from NASA\u2019s Cassini mission taken in 2016, highlighting Saturn\u2019s axial tilt during its northern hemisphere summer.<\/span>\n NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SSI. Composite by Jason Major via Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-NC-SA<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

So why do Saturn\u2019s rings \u2018disappear\u2019?<\/h2>\n\n

The rings are so thin that, seen from a distance, they appear to vanish when edge on. You can visualise this easily by grabbing a sheet of paper, and rotating it until it is edge on \u2013 the paper almost vanishes from view.<\/p>\n\n

As Saturn moves around the Sun, our viewpoint changes. For half of the orbit, its northern hemisphere is tilted towards us and the northern face of the planet\u2019s rings is tipped our way. <\/p>\n\n

When Saturn is on the other side of the Sun, its southern hemisphere is pointed our way. For the same reason, we see the southern face of the planet\u2019s rings tilted our way.<\/p>\n\n

The best way to illustrate this is to get your sheet of paper, and hold it horizontally \u2013 parallel to the ground \u2013 at eye level. Now, move the paper down towards the ground a few inches. What do you see? The upper side of the paper comes into view. Move the paper back up, through your eye line, to hold it above you and you can see the underside of the paper. But as it passes through eye level, the paper will all but disappear.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"\"<\/a>\n
\n This simulation demonstrates the 29.5-year orbital period of Saturn, as viewed from Earth. The ring system lies directly above Saturn\u2019s equator, so both sides of its disk are visible from Earth during the course of one Saturnian year.<\/span>\n Tdadamemd\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

That\u2019s what we see with Saturn\u2019s rings. As the seasons on Saturn progress, we go from having the southern side of the rings tilted our way to seeing the northern side. Then, the planet tips back, revealing the southern side once more.<\/p>\n\n

Twice per Saturnian year, we see the rings edge on and they all but vanish from view.<\/p>\n\n

That\u2019s what\u2019s happening in 2025 \u2013 the reason Saturn\u2019s rings will seemingly \u201cdisappear\u201d is because we will be looking at them edge on.<\/p>\n\n

This happens regularly. The last time was in 2009 and the rings gradually became visible again, over the course of a few months. The rings will be edge on once again in March 2025. Then they\u2019ll gradually come back into view as seen through large telescopes, before sliding out of view again in November 2025. <\/p>\n\n

Thereafter, the rings will gradually get more and more obvious, reappearing first to the largest telescopes over the months that follow. Nothing to worry about.<\/p>\n\n

If you want to clearly see Saturn\u2019s rings, now is your best chance, at least until 2027 or 2028!\"The<\/p>\n\n

Jonti Horner<\/a>, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/Space Science Institute Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland If you can get your hands on a telescope,…\n","protected":false},"author":660,"featured_media":10554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[936,474],"class_list":{"0":"post-10585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-saturn","9":"tag-the-conversation","10":"cs-entry","11":"cs-video-wrap"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/660"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10586,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10585\/revisions\/10586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}