* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Sunday, May 11, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    ‘Experimental entertainment venue’ sets sights on Austin area – MySA

    ‘Experimental entertainment venue’ sets sights on Austin area – MySA

    Taylor Swift’s team calls subpoena in Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni case ‘tabloid clickbait’ – Yahoo

    Taylor Swift’s Team Slams Subpoena in Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni Case as ‘Tabloid Clickbait

    The Weeknd made the apocalypse sexy at his 2025 tour launch in Arizona – Yahoo

    The Weeknd Turns Up the Heat at His 2025 Tour Launch in Arizona!

    Flutter Entertainment eyes U.S. prediction markets amid growing interest – Sports Business Journal

    Flutter Entertainment Sets Its Sights on U.S. Prediction Markets as Interest Soars

    SXSW Rom-Com ‘I Really Love My Husband’ Acquired for U.S. Release – Variety

    Heartfelt Romance: ‘I Really Love My Husband’ Set to Captivate U.S. Audiences!

    Georgia Entertainment CEO says large-scale production is slowing down – Decaturish

    Georgia Entertainment CEO Warns of Slowdown in Large-Scale Productions

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Federal agents raid Dymeng Technology Solutions in St. Augustine – Action News Jax

    Federal Agents Storm Dymeng Technology Solutions in St. Augustine: What You Need to Know

    SoundHound’s Amelia 7.0 Platform Delivers Agentic AI With Category Leading Voice Technology – Business Wire

    Unleashing the Future: SoundHound’s Amelia 7.0 Revolutionizes Voice Technology with Agentic AI

    Comings and goings: MPT hires VP of technology, NPR announces changes to Business Desk – Current – For people in public media

    Exciting Leadership Changes: MPT Welcomes New VP of Technology and NPR Revamps Business Desk!

    Harnessing emerging technologies to power a small business – The Oaklandside

    Unlocking Success: How Emerging Technologies Can Transform Your Small Business

    Artificial intelligence (AI) – The Guardian

    Unlocking the Future: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Our World

    Technology Innovation to Take Center Stage at The 2025 National Restaurant Association Show – Restaurant Technology News

    Get Ready for a Tech Revolution: The 2025 National Restaurant Association Show Unveils Cutting-Edge Innovations!

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    ‘Experimental entertainment venue’ sets sights on Austin area – MySA

    ‘Experimental entertainment venue’ sets sights on Austin area – MySA

    Taylor Swift’s team calls subpoena in Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni case ‘tabloid clickbait’ – Yahoo

    Taylor Swift’s Team Slams Subpoena in Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni Case as ‘Tabloid Clickbait

    The Weeknd made the apocalypse sexy at his 2025 tour launch in Arizona – Yahoo

    The Weeknd Turns Up the Heat at His 2025 Tour Launch in Arizona!

    Flutter Entertainment eyes U.S. prediction markets amid growing interest – Sports Business Journal

    Flutter Entertainment Sets Its Sights on U.S. Prediction Markets as Interest Soars

    SXSW Rom-Com ‘I Really Love My Husband’ Acquired for U.S. Release – Variety

    Heartfelt Romance: ‘I Really Love My Husband’ Set to Captivate U.S. Audiences!

    Georgia Entertainment CEO says large-scale production is slowing down – Decaturish

    Georgia Entertainment CEO Warns of Slowdown in Large-Scale Productions

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Federal agents raid Dymeng Technology Solutions in St. Augustine – Action News Jax

    Federal Agents Storm Dymeng Technology Solutions in St. Augustine: What You Need to Know

    SoundHound’s Amelia 7.0 Platform Delivers Agentic AI With Category Leading Voice Technology – Business Wire

    Unleashing the Future: SoundHound’s Amelia 7.0 Revolutionizes Voice Technology with Agentic AI

    Comings and goings: MPT hires VP of technology, NPR announces changes to Business Desk – Current – For people in public media

    Exciting Leadership Changes: MPT Welcomes New VP of Technology and NPR Revamps Business Desk!

    Harnessing emerging technologies to power a small business – The Oaklandside

    Unlocking Success: How Emerging Technologies Can Transform Your Small Business

    Artificial intelligence (AI) – The Guardian

    Unlocking the Future: How Artificial Intelligence is Transforming Our World

    Technology Innovation to Take Center Stage at The 2025 National Restaurant Association Show – Restaurant Technology News

    Get Ready for a Tech Revolution: The 2025 National Restaurant Association Show Unveils Cutting-Edge Innovations!

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

Are Saturn’s rings really ‘disappearing’? An astronomer explains

November 15, 2023
in Science
Are Saturn’s rings really ‘disappearing’? An astronomer explains
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

If you can get your hands on a telescope, there are few sights more spectacular than the magnificent ringed planet – Saturn.

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

But in the past few days, a slew of articles have run like wildfire through social media. Saturn’s rings, those articles claim, are rapidly disappearing – and will be gone by 2025!

So what’s 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?

The short answer is no. Whilst it’s true the rings will become almost invisible from Earth in 2025, this is neither a surprise nor reason to panic. The rings will “reappear” soon thereafter. Here’s why.

Tipping and tilting Earth

To understand why our view of Saturn changes, let’s begin by considering Earth on its constant journey around the Sun. That journey takes us through the seasons – from winter to spring, summer and autumn, then back again.

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.

A diagram of Earth showing its position during solstices and equinoxes

Earth has seasons because its axis is tilted. The axis always points in the same direction as our planet orbits the Sun. Source: The Conversation / Bureau of Meteorology

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’re tilted away, you get shorter days and longer nights, and experience autumn and winter.

From the Sun’s viewpoint, Earth appears to “nod” up and down, alternately showing off its hemispheres as it moves around our star. Now, let’s move on to Saturn.

Saturn, a giant tilted world

Just like Earth, Saturn experiences seasons, but more than 29 times longer than ours. Where Earth’s equator is tilted by 23.5 degrees, Saturn’s 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.

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

Saturn and its rings, tilted at Saturnian midsummer

A mosaic of images from NASA’s Cassini mission taken in 2016, highlighting Saturn’s axial tilt during its northern hemisphere summer. Source: The Conversation / NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI. Composite by Jason Major via Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA

So why do Saturn’s rings ‘disappear’?

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 – the paper almost vanishes from view.

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’s rings is tipped our way.

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’s rings tilted our way.

The best way to illustrate this is to get your sheet of paper, and hold it horizontally – parallel to the ground – 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.

A gif showing a cartoon Saturn rotating in a black background.

A simulation demonstrating the 29.5-year orbital period of Saturn, as viewed from Earth. The ring system lies directly above Saturn’s equator, so both sides of its disk are visible from Earth during the course of one Saturnian year. Source: The Conversation / Tdadamemd / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

That’s what we see with Saturn’s 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.

Twice per Saturnian year, we see the rings edge on and they all but vanish from view.

That’s what’s happening in 2025 – the reason Saturn’s rings will seemingly “disappear” is because we will be looking at them edge on.

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’ll gradually come back into view as seen through large telescopes, before sliding out of view again in November 2025.

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.

If you want to clearly see Saturn’s rings, now is your best chance, at least until 2027 or 2028!

Jonti Horner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : SBS – https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/are-saturns-rings-really-disappearing-an-astronomer-explains/m3bnkjrak

Tags: ringsSaturn'sscience
Previous Post

Had a missing food delivery order? Drivers and restaurants say why they believe it happens

Next Post

Four in five Australians think income inequality is too high as social cohesion drops

It’s Air Quality Awareness Week! – Department of Ecology – State of Washington (.gov)

Breathe Easy: Celebrate Air Quality Awareness Week!

May 11, 2025
NSF Seeks Partnerships to Fund Graduate Fellows – AIP.ORG

NSF Seeks Partnerships to Fund Graduate Fellows – AIP.ORG

May 11, 2025
US govt’s science foundation purges 37 divisions, equity unit among casualties – theregister.com

US govt’s science foundation purges 37 divisions, equity unit among casualties – theregister.com

May 11, 2025
Farm to cabaret: 7 things to do for Mother’s Day on South Shore. (None are just brunch) – The Patriot Ledger

Farm to cabaret: 7 things to do for Mother’s Day on South Shore. (None are just brunch) – The Patriot Ledger

May 11, 2025
4 Blues headed to World Championship – NHL.com

4 Blues headed to World Championship – NHL.com

May 11, 2025
Puerto Rico turns to manufacturing to boost economy as Trump’s tariff war deepens – Yahoo

Puerto Rico Embraces Manufacturing to Revitalize Its Economy Amid Ongoing Tariff Challenges

May 11, 2025
‘Experimental entertainment venue’ sets sights on Austin area – MySA

‘Experimental entertainment venue’ sets sights on Austin area – MySA

May 11, 2025
Event offers free health services and wellness items in Fort Worth – CBS News

Event offers free health services and wellness items in Fort Worth – CBS News

May 11, 2025
Joseph Nye, Political Scientist Who Extolled ‘Soft Power,’ Dies at 88 – The New York Times

Remembering Joseph Nye: The Visionary Political Scientist Who Championed ‘Soft Power

May 11, 2025
Federal agents raid Dymeng Technology Solutions in St. Augustine – Action News Jax

Federal Agents Storm Dymeng Technology Solutions in St. Augustine: What You Need to Know

May 11, 2025

Categories

Archives

May 2025
MTWTFSS
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 
« Apr    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (599)
  • Economy (611)
  • Entertainment (21,524)
  • General (15,211)
  • Health (9,653)
  • Lifestyle (616)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (614)
  • Politics (618)
  • Science (15,833)
  • Sports (21,121)
  • Technology (15,601)
  • World (601)

Recent News

It’s Air Quality Awareness Week! – Department of Ecology – State of Washington (.gov)

Breathe Easy: Celebrate Air Quality Awareness Week!

May 11, 2025
NSF Seeks Partnerships to Fund Graduate Fellows – AIP.ORG

NSF Seeks Partnerships to Fund Graduate Fellows – AIP.ORG

May 11, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version