If you were to look at Saturn through a teelescope today, you’d be forgiven for being disapopinted: the rings that define the icon look of the planet have temporarily disappeared. But why?
Why Have Saturn’s Rings Disappeared?
Luckily for us, Saturn’s rings aren’t actually gone—they’re just borderline impossible to see at the moment. There are two main things that cause them to disappear from view: the way Saturn is tilted and how thin the rings are.
Saturn’s Rings Are Angled
Saturn, much like Earth, isn’t pointed “straight up.” It (and its rings!) rotates around its pole at an angle of about 26 degrees. Much like Earth, that means that for half of Saturn’s year, Saturn’s southern hemisphere is pointed more directly at the sun, and in the opposite half of the year, the northern hemisphere is pointed more towards the sun.
On Earth, the same transition drives the seasons that we’re familiar with.
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The spring equinox marks the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, bringing longer days, cultural celebrations, and seasonal changes.
Like on Earth, Saturn also experiences spring and fall equinoxes, which mark the points where the northern and southern hemispheres are receiving the same amount of light. On Saturn’s equinox the rings are aligned edge on with the Sun, and if you viewed them from the sun on that day, you’d only see a thin line instead of the rings we’re accustomed to.
We’re not quite at Saturn’s equinox yet, which falls on May 6th.
However, while the Earth is relatively close to the Sun, we’re separated enough that our view of Saturn is a bit different. We still see the rings edge on, but our “ring-plane crossing” (where you pass through the plane of the rings) will usually miss Saturn’s equinox by at least a few weeks. This time, the Earth is treated to the edge on view of Saturn’s rings on March 23rd, about six weeks before Saturn’s actual equinox.
The Rings Are Incredibly Thin
Saturn’s rings are also unbelievably thin compared to the planet. The main rings are about 300 feet (around 100 meters) thick. To put that in perspective, the diameter of Saturn is about 70,000 miles, or 369,600,000 feet. That extraordinary difference means that when viewed edge on, Saturn’s rings completely disappear. It would be like trying to view something smaller than 1/100th the size of a human hair on a basketball.
Why Don’t We See the Rings Edge On More Often?
We can really only see Saturn’s rings edge on around the time of one of Saturn’s equinoxes, which only occur once every 14.5 years or so.
But why so long?
Saturn orbits the Sun at a distance of about 880 million miles, whereas the Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 93 million miles. Because Saturn is so much farther from the sun, one Saturn year lasts 29.4 Earth years, and there are two equinoxes in any year.
Can You See Saturn Right Now?
Sadly, no. Saturn is currently very near the sun in the sky due to how the Earth and Saturn are positioned in the solar system. We basically have to look right past the Sun to look at Saturn.
That makes Saturn difficult or impossible to view.
The next ring-plane crossing event will be in October, 2038, and viewing conditions will be a bit better, though Saturn will still be close enough to the Sun to make viewing difficult.
In October of 2054, however, the Earth and Saturn will both be on the same side of the Sun when the Earth crosses Saturn’s rings, which basically guarantees you’ll be able to get a good view.
Saturn’s Rings Will Disappear Forever, Eventually
The seasonal variation in the appearance in the rings isn’t the only thing at work, though. Sadly, Saturn’s rings are unstable. Over the course of the next 100 million years or so, Saturn’s rings will be pulled into the planet itself (or nearby moons) and disappear forever.
Could We Get New Rings?
It is possible that new rings will form after the ones we see today disappear. The most popular explanation for Saturn’s rings is that two moons collided a few hundred million years ago. Some of the debris wound up stuck orbiting the planet as rings; the rest probably reformed into new moons. It is possible that another collision will occur in the future, creating more rings.
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Our moon isn’t all that impressive compared to some others in the solar system.
Destroying moons isn’t the only thing that built up Saturn’s rings, though. Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, is volcanically active, and has several geysers. When those geysers erupt and launch water vapor, it quickly turns to ice, where it is then captured by Saturn’s gravity. These tiny pieces of ice are what make up Saturn’s E ring.
Luckily for us, Saturn’s rings will be back before we know it. From here on out, the viewing actually only gets better until 2032, when we reach Saturn’s solstice. At that point, we’ll get a great view of Saturn’s southern hemisphere and a view of the underside of the rings.
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