Saturn is everyone’s favorite planet, it seems.
Through a telescope those glorious rings make that world appear so three-dimensional that it’s not uncommon for folks to accuse me of inserting a slide into the eyepiece.
“It just can’t be real,” they proclaim.
But it is real.
The ring system of Saturn is one of the great marvels of our solar system that even a small, low-powered telescope can show, along with Saturn’s largest and brightest moon, Titan.
Of course, a more powerful telescope will show not only the planet’s rings but also a break within them known as the Cassini Division.
Astronomers have known about the rings of Saturn for nearly four centuries, and for most of that time, scientists debated their true nature.
Today we know that, even though the rings appear solid, they’re made of countless chunks of ice that whirl around the planet at tens of thousands of mph.
And the size of the rings (a diameter of about 170,000 miles) is hard to comprehend. In other words, if brought to Earth this structure would fill most of the void between the Earth and the moon, yet the rings are less than a mile thick!
If you’ve never experienced this amazing sight, I’m afraid you’ll have a bit of a wait.
That’s because these rings change their orientation as Saturn orbits the sun.
At their widest, the rings girdle the Saturnian equator at a 26.7-degree angle to Earth. They appear “open” when Saturn is in the parts of its orbit that correspond to its summer or winter — when its poles are tilted toward the sun and Earth.
As Saturn approaches its spring and fall positions, however, these remarkably thin rings “close down” and become quite difficult to see from Earth.
When turned completely edge-on to us, they leave only a tiny, faint and nearly featureless yellowish-white disk.
Right now is one of those times. We crossed Saturn’s ring plane on March 23; at that time, however, the planet was much too close to the sun to get a good view.
Our best view of Saturn appearing without rings will begin in April when it begins to emerge from the sun’s glare. And if you’ve never seen Saturn without rings, it’s well worth the effort to do so!
We’ve seen Saturn in our evening sky for the past few months, but now it’s crossing behind the sun and is lost in our star’s glare.
It will emerge into the predawn sky during April, but no matter what size telescope you use, you may find the view of a ringless Saturn disappointing.
Or you may find this surreal view quite thrilling, since the ring may appear only as a thin dark line crossing the planet’s disk or may even cast its shadow onto the Saturnian cloud tops.
After this month, our next good edge-on view of Saturn won’t come until 2038-2039.
By this time next year, the rings will be opening a bit more and will continue doing so until they reach their widest and brightest again in 2032.
And it’s these stunningly beautiful views that make Saturn everyone’s favorite planet!
