Ammon – In 1610, Galileo Galilei discovered for the first time Saturn’s amazing rings, which he likened to “ears” through his then-pioneering telescope, primitive compared to current technology.
Now, more than 400 years later, anyone with simple tools can see these iconic rings with their own eyes. However, by 2025 the rings will almost disappear.
The original planetary rings consist of seven individual rings, and are thought to be made up of fragments of comets, asteroids and shattered moons that were dented near the gas giant and torn to pieces by its powerful gravity. There are also billions of pieces of ice, all covered in space dust.
No one is completely sure how old the rings are, although a study published last May indicated that they are only small rings in cosmic terms, and they likely formed only 400 million years ago, less than a tenth of the planet’s age.
But the only thing we know now is that they are also fading, falling as icy rain into Saturn’s atmosphere below.
However, it is also very large, extending 175,000 miles from the planet, so it will take some time before Earthlings can see any difference, and at least 100 million years before it “disappears completely.”
It is related to what is known as an optical illusion, where the rings may be huge in one dimension, but in another dimension they appear very small, and are only ten meters thick.
This is not a problem at the present time, because Saturn is not in perfect alignment with the Earth, as it is tilted at an angle of approximately 9 degrees. Next year, it will decrease by about 3.7 degrees, and by 2025, it will disappear in an imperceptible line, when Saturn will be in direct opposition to our planet, and its beautiful rings will be too thin to be seen.
Fortunately, this phenomenon will not last long, as the planet continues to tilt away from Earth as part of its 29.5-year cycle, slowly revealing the underside of the rings until it reaches its maximum tilt in 2032, which is 27 degrees.
In a way, the lower inclination of the rings presents an opportunity to view Saturn’s rapidly rotating moons more easily.
“RT”
