If you fancy yourself an amateur astronomer, you’ll want to keep your telescope fixed on Saturn next year, as NASA recently shared that its iconic rings are going to “disappear” in 2025.
NASA scientist Dr. Amy Simon shared with Nexstar that the rings of Saturn, which are made up of rocky and icy chunks that range in size from small grains to chunks as large as a house, will vanish from the night sky next year as the planet transitions and its tilt shifts from what we’ve usually observed.
The movement from Saturn will alter our view of the planet as Earth crosses its ring plane.
“The rings engage in sort of a planetary ‘sleight of hand,’ where, when viewed from the edge, the rings seem to disappear (think of a sheet of paper – it looks large when viewed from above, but as you tilt it, it gets thinner and thinner),” Dr. Simon, a Senior Scientist for Planetary Atmospheres Research in the Solar System Exploration Division at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, shared with Nexstar.
With Saturn being millions of miles away and the rings already being thin, Earth will lose sight of them when we are just a few degrees above or below them, Simon told Nexstar.
Simon says that Saturn’s rings will disappear for a few days starting March 23. Depending on the telescope you are using and the atmosphere’s conditions, the rings will “remain very thin” for several months next year.
“Unfortunately, Saturn will be very close to the Sun in the sky in March, so it will be difficult to catch this from small telescopes,” Simon said. “However, because the Earth’s orbit is short, a similar geometry will occur in November, when Saturn is easier to view, but it won’t be quite as edge-on as in March, so the rings may be barely visible.”
But don’t worry if you aren’t able to observe the phenomena in March, as Simon says the conditions will be right again in about 13 to 15 years.
NASA previously covered the disappearance of Saturn’s rings, sharing that Earth will cross the planet’s ring plane in 2038-2039 three times. The dates where we will see the ringless planet are Oct. 15, 2038, April 1, 2039, and July 9, 2039.
March 2025 won’t only feature the ringless Saturn, as it will also include a total lunar eclipse on March 14.