Revealing the Vanishing Rings of Saturn.

Revealing the Vanishing Rings of Saturn.

Amateur astronomers around the world today noticed the change on Saturn: Saturn's rings are rapidly narrowing into a thin line width. Efrain Morales Rivera sends these pictures taken from the backyard of his home in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.

"The rings have narrowed considerably in the last year," he said. Area or Cassini Cassini division (a dark gap in the rings of Saturn called Cassini) getting hard to see. The same phenomenon occurred four hundred years ago and had a dizzying Galileo, the first person who in 1610 found the rings of Saturn through a telescope primitive. He was very surprised when they discover the rings narrowed slightly next year.
So, what really happened? Now, the same event is: we are experiencing a "ring plane crossing" (ring plane crossing). While it is on its journey around the Sun, Saturn turned the ring being parallel to the line of sight from Earth (edge-on) every 14-15 years. Because the rings are so thin, they can actually disappear when viewed through a small telescope.
In the months following, Saturn's rings will become thinner and thinner until they "disappear". When this happened in 1612, Galileo abandoned his study of the planet. In fact, we know then, moments of "ring plane crossing" like this is a good time to find satellites and a new outer ring of Saturn. Moreover, when such is also a good time to look at the north pole of Saturn is blue. In 2005, the Cassini spacecraft flew over Saturn's northern hemisphere and found the skies there as azure as Earth itself. Over the years, only Cassini has enjoyed this view, because of the Earth, the top covered by a blue Saturn that Saturn's rings.
Galileo never understood the true nature of the rings of Saturn. He did not know that they are actually a collection of small satellites that orbit in the orbital plane of the disc, from the size of our moon dust up (likely the rings are debris or debris from the destroyed satellite, but scientists are still not sure will correct this). Through its 17th century telescope, the ring is more like a kind ear lobe or the planet.
Even so, his intuition guided him to make a correct prediction, that the rings that they'll be back. And he's right. Saturn's rings back looks, and research scientists concluded. In 1659, Christiaan Huygens correctly explained the disappearance of the ring are periodic events during the "ring plane crossing" or "ring plane crossing" this. In 1660, Jean Chapelain say that Saturn's rings were not solid, but is made of small particles very much and each independently orbiting Saturn. For two hundred years, his proposal was not widely accepted, before it proved true.NASASaturn's rings are very wide but very thin. Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the rings is flat (edge-on) in 1995. Star-like objects in the plane of the ring shown in the picture is icy satellites. Image Credit: NASA
No need to grieve the "unfortunate loss" of Saturn's rings. Saturn is still a beautiful object to be viewed through a small telescope though. In fact, this week is actually a good week to look. On Tuesday, March 18 and Wednesday, March 19, nearly-full Moon and Saturn will be lined up in the same part of the evening sky. This makes it easy to find: Saturn, not as usual. After sunset and look sHere area ekeliling Month, and voila! Saturn is the "gold star" near the moon light.
If you miss the March 18 to 19, try again on April 14-15. Moon and Saturn will be close together and the rings even narrower. good week for observing Saturn. On Tuesday, March 18 and Wednesday, March 19, nearly-full Moon and Saturn will be lined up in the same part of the evening sky.
This makes it easy to find: Saturn, not as usual. After sunset and look sHere area ekeliling Month, and voila! Saturn is the "gold star" near the moon light. If you miss the March 18 to 19, try again on April 14-15. Moon and Saturn will be close together and the rings even narrower.
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