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If you're telescope, there's nothing more impressive than Saturn, a magnificent ring-shaped planet.Currently, Saturn is clearly visible in the evening sky and peaks after sunset. This is the perfect time to use a telescope or binoculars to take a closer look at the sixth planet of the solar system and its famous ring.
But in the past few days, many horror articles have been going viral on social **. As these articles claim, Saturn's rings are rapidly disappearing – and will disappear in 2025!
So what is the story? Will the next few months before Saturn disappear from the night sky really our last chance to see its powerful rings? The most succinct answer isNope。Indeed, by 2025, these halos will be virtually invisible on Earth, but this is neither surprising nor a reason for panic. Soon after, the ringwill "reappear."” 。Here's why.
To understand the reason for the change in Saturn's appearance, let's first observe the continuous orbit of the Earth around the Sun. This journey takes us through the seasons – from winter to spring, summer, and autumn and back again.
What are the reasons for the change of seasons? To put it simply, the Earth is tilted to one side when viewed from the direction of the Sun. Our equator is tilted about 23 from the orbital plane5 degrees.
The earth has seasons because its axis is tilted. This axis always points in the same direction as the rotation of our planets around the Sun.
Outcome? Moving around the sun, we alternately"Tilt".The first hemisphere, and then the other hemisphere is "tilted" towards our star. When your hemispheres are more tilted towards the sun, the days will be longer than the nights, and you will experience spring and summer. When you deviate, your days will be shorter, your nights will be longer, and you will experience autumn and winter.
From the perspective of the sun, the earth seems to go up and downNod, alternately showing its hemispheres as it orbits the star. Now let's turn to Saturn.
Like Earth, Saturn has seasons, but they are more than 29 times longer than ours. The Earth's equator is tilted 235 degrees, while Saturn's equator is tilted 267 degrees. Outcome? When Saturn orbits our star 29At the 4-year orbit, it also seems to be nodding up and down from the perspective of the Earth and the Sun.
What about Saturn's rings? The planet's massive ring system, made up of ice, dust, and rock, extends a long distance – just over 280,000 kilometers from the planet. But it's thin - in most places it's only a few tens of meters thick. These rings orbit just above Saturn's equator, so they are also inclined towards Saturn's orbital plane.
The rings are so thin that from a distance, they seem to disappear from the edges. You can easily imagine this, just take a piece of paper and turn it until it faces you – the paper almost disappears from view.
As Saturn orbits the Sun, our perspective changes. Halfway through its orbit, its northern hemisphere tilts toward us, as does the northern edge of the planet's ring. When Saturn is on the other side of the Sun, its southern hemisphere is pointing in our direction. For the same reason, we see that the southern edge of the planet's ring is tilting in our direction.
The best way to illustrate this is to take a piece of paper and place it horizontally, parallel to the ground and level with your eyes. Now move the paper a few inches towards the ground. What do you see? The top surface of the paper can be seen. Move the paper up past your line of sight so that it remains above you so you can see the underside of the paper. But when the paper passes past eye level, it almost disappears.
This is what we see in Saturn's rings. As Saturn's seasons change, we tilt from the south side of Saturn's rings to the north side. The planet then tilts back, again exposing its southern face. Twice in a year on Saturn, we see the rings expand and almost disappear from view. That's exactly what will happen in 2025 – Saturn's rings seem"Disappear".The reason for this is that we will be looking at their edges.
This happens quite often. The last time was in 2009, and a few months later the halo gradually became visible again. The rings will reappear on the edge in March 2025. They will then gradually return to people's field of vision, as seen in large telescopes, before disappearing from view again in November 2025. After that, the halo will gradually become more and more noticeable and reappear in the largest telescopes in the first few months. Don't worry at all.
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