In the grand expanses of space, among the stars, comets, and the many moons of our solar system, little compares to the iconic planet Saturn. The most notable of its features must be its rings, which span 170,000 miles across and are made up of ice, remnants of comets, and broken moons. Losing these rings temporarily is a reality in the coming year, but may be permanent in the coming eon.
The History of the Ringed Planet
Humans have been mystified by Saturn’s rings since ancient times. While it’s true that in 1610, Galileo was the first person to get a good look at the planet through the use of a telescope, he certainly wasn’t the first to notice its brilliance. Saturn, being the furthest planet from the earth still visible to the naked eye, has garnered attention from humans for over 4,000 years. Although It’s well known that Romans noticed the planet and gave it the name Saturn after the God of time and fertility, many different societies before them had also observed the planet, and even named it after a god of their own. The Egyptians associated Saturn with the god Horus, the Bull of the Sky, which was a figure representing leadership and strength. In ancient Japanese and Chinese society, Saturn was named the Earth star, after one of the five elements. In one of the oldest civilizations of the world, Mesopotamia, astronomers named Saturn after the god Uduimin-saĝuš, or star of the sun.
The Temporary Disappearance
Saturn’s rings, as layered and boundless as they might seem, are actually quite thin, estimated as being just 30 feet thick. This thinness and Saturn’s axial tilt occasionally position the very edge of the rings toward Earth’s point of view. Usually, the top of the rings are tilted toward us, reflecting the sun’s light and making the rings bright and visible to telescopes. However, about every 15 years, the position in the planet’s orbit around the sun combined with its tilt will make the rings practically invisible. Luckily for astronomers and star-gazers alike, this only lasts a few months, and the rings will eventually be visible again. While this might seem like a downgrade for astronomers, the invisibility of the rings has actually helped scientists discover the moons of Saturn progressively over the centuries of its observation. The celestial event will begin in March of 2025 and will completely reappear in November of that year.
The Permanent Disappearance
The disappearance of the rings doesn’t stop there. Relative to the cosmic span of time, Saturn’s rings are shrinking at rapid rates. Scientists predict that over the course of 100 million years, the rings will be gradually sucked into the planet due to its gravitational pull, and some have even suggested that meteoroids may be hitting the rings and projecting them into the planet. This gravitational absorption is officially known as ring rain, and in the case of Saturn’s rings, ice water from its innermost layer falls down into the atmosphere at a rate of 22,000 pounds per second. Astronomers believe that ring rain is extremely common, and that perhaps every gas giant in the past had rings as bright and visible as Saturn’s, but were worn down over time.
While I’m sure most people reading this will not be alive to see the complete absence of Saturn’s rings, the possibility is an odd thing to picture, given its continuous relevancy and iconography in society. Although technically every gas giant has rings, Saturn’s are the most beautiful and are the focus of many studies, cementing their value in the scientific world as well as the cultural one. For now, we get a sneak peek at what a complete disappearance might look like through this bizarre phenomenon of light and planetary tilt.
