Arabia Weather – NASA announced that Saturn’s rings will become invisible from Earth within less than 18 months.
This announcement came according to an article published by the British newspaper “Daily Star”, in which experts from the American Space Agency confirmed that by 2025, the rings on Saturn may become invisible from Earth.
Details of the disappearance of Saturn’s rings
Despite their enormous extension – the rings are only half a mile thick – when Saturn is tilted into alignment with stargazers on Earth, the rings will be visible at best as a thin line. As a result of this thin thickness of the rings, it will appear as if they have almost disappeared.
NASA experts expect the massive rings, which are 175,000 miles wide, to disappear relatively due to the equinox event. Although this disappearance will not be permanent, the rings will not become visible from Earth again until the next phase of Saturn’s 29-year rotation period.
Will Saturn’s rings disappear?
Saturn’s seven distinct rings are made up of ice, rocky debris and dust, meaning they could disappear entirely as a result of erosion. But scientists do not expect this to happen before about 300 million years. What is striking is that the rings can only be seen for short periods at a time before disappearing from view.
Saturn moves with a slight tilt toward and away from the Sun during its orbit, and for this reason, we can see the rings perfectly from the side about every 13.7 to 15.7 years, making them appear invisible at a distance of up to 746 million miles (1.2 billion kilometers).
Currently, Saturn’s rings are tilted towards Earth at an angle of 9 degrees, and this angle is expected to decrease to only 3.7 degrees by 2024. This phenomenon has not occurred since September 2009, the last time was in February 1996, and it is expected to happen again in October. 2038.
