Which way would the rings of saturn be pointing?

in #science5 years ago

To an observer from earth the rings of saturn change orientation and hence visibility.

There are enough clues in this picture to indicate how the rings of saturn would appear to an observer from earth.

Can you guess which way and why?

PIA18352-SaturnRings&Moons-Enceladus&Rhea-20150924.jpg
By NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute - http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA18352.jpg, Public Domain, Link

Sort:  

Hi @gavvet saw this come up my feed and noticed nobody else answered it. So I'd thought I'd chip in!

You can tell that the sun is to the upper right because of the illumination on the moons. Because the earth is the same orbital plane as Saturn, the Earth must also be in that direction. Therefore we will see a view where we are looking down at the rings at an angle, wiith the rings passing across the bottom of the planet.

Just to confirm this I looked up the link for PIA18352 and it was taken on Sep 24, 2015. Using Guide 9.1 this is how Saturn was predicted to look from earth on that day.

saturn.PNG

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.29
TRX 0.12
JST 0.035
BTC 65916.61
ETH 3431.41
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.66