The rings of Saturn will temporarily “disappear” this weekend, though most stargazers will be unlikely to see it.
The rings are not actually going away, but will be imperceptible because the super-thin band of debris will be angled edge-on toward earth. Its a phenomenon that happens every 13 to 15 years.
“They literally almost disappear,” Sean Walker, an associate editor at Sky & Telescope, a monthly magazine about science and amateur astronomy, told NBC News.
“Normally you see the rings around Saturn, but when you have an edge-on view, it looks like a hair-thin line of light just cutting across.”
Saturn’s apparent loss of its rings is due to the planets becoming perpendicular to each other, putting the rings directly on Earth’s plane. Saturn is tilled 26.73 degrees from vertical as it rounds the sun — similar to Earth’s 23.5-degree tilt, according to NASA.
Saturn’s rings, which are believed be made of broken bits of comets, asteroids and shattered moons, extends up to 175,000 miles from the planet — but their vertical height is only about 30 feet, according to NASA. The thinness of the layer adds to the vanishing act.
While only lasting for about a day or two, the ring plane crossings, as they’re called, only occur twice during Saturn’s nearly 30-year orbit around the Sun, or about once every 13 to 15 years.
Unfortunately this weekend, Saturn’s position in the Earth sky will be too close to the sun for astronomers in Northern latitudes to see very easily. I could be more visible in the south.
The next ring plane crossing will be in November. It will be easier to see, but will the rings will not be precisely edge-on.
Walker recalled viewing the “fantastic” phenomenon back in 1995 from a backyard telescope, sparking his interest in astronomy.
“It looked like a different planet,” he told NBC News. “I spent a good part of the night just drinking in that view.”
The rare view also makes Saturn’s 274 moons more visible, he said. Typically, only about six are perceptible from a telescope.
“When we have these ring plane crossings, the light that normally reflects off Saturn’s rings is no longer glaring back toward Earth,” he said. “That means you can detect a lot more of the smaller moons.”
The next full ring plane crossing will be in 2038, and should be viewable.
“I’d love to see it again,” he said. “It’s just going to be a little while to wait.”
