Breaking news: The Vanishing Rings of Saturn

March 18, 2008: Saturn: jewel of the solar system, taker of breaths, ringed beauty. Even veteran astronomers can't help but gasp when they see her through a small telescope.

Red Alert: Saturn's rings are vanishing.

Around the world, amateur astronomers have noticed the change; Saturn's wide open rings are rapidly narrowing into a thin line. Efrain Morales Rivera sends these pictures taken through a backyard telescope in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico:

"The rings have narrowed considerably in the last year," he reports. "The Cassini division (a dark gap in the rings) is getting hard to see."

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[edit on 19-3-2008 by 12m8keall2c]

The way you posted this story is highly misleading. The rings are not disappearing. It's just that the apparent angle of the rings to Earth is changing (as it does on a regular cycle), so that the rings are more head-on. This makes them appear smaller when viewed from Earth.

reply to post by nataylor


Sorry for that misleading part; did you notice a smiley next to the source of the article? I was well aware of that misleading part; but then thats what even NASA did with the article published in their site

[edit on 19-3-2008 by Enceladus]

With the number of people who come in here and don't even read the original article, there was bound to be someone confused and outraged by the news that Saturn's rings were vanishing. Hopefully now that won't happen.

I agree. Seeing the title made it sound like, well breaking news. We have known for hundreds of years that Saturn's view changes so the rings look like they disappear.

Misleading or not, the poster was following the ToC by using the actual title of the article which is 'the vanishing rings of saturn'.