It’s a good time to see Saturn in terms of closeness to Earth and height in the sky, but if you take a look through a small telescope you might get a shock. The rings will be barely visible. Although they will gradually return to view, it’s likely that what you are seeing is a forewarning of a future in which the Solar System will be without one of its most cherished sights. So why the short- and long-term disappearances? The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

The reasons the rings are temporarily invisible, and why they are expected to vanish over a much longer timeframe are different, but there is a connection.

The key fact is that the rings are immensely thin. From one tip to another the rings span 560,000 kilometers (175,

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