Phil Plait - Saturn, Lord of the Rings

published by Raigen

2 months 4 weeks ago • 360 views

tags: phil, plait, bad, astronomy, saturn, rings, history, science, space

comments (5)

embed

bookmarks (0)

playlists (0)

Stumble This

You should also watch
“Phil Plait - It's KILL-O-METER”

Phil Plait of the Bad Astronomer blog, discusses Saturn's rings in this interesting short video. Better enjoy Saturn's rings while they last, they won't be there forever!

Comments

Similarly, the moon moves about an inch away from the Earth each year. That there is a fun fact!

written by shuac

| 2 months 4 weeks ago | CH

▲ 0 ▼ | flag spam (0)

To add to that, as the moon slowly moves away from the Earth, it has a very small braking effect on Earth's rotation. What this means is.. eventually this will lead to both the Earth and the Moon becoming tidally locked, or with the SAME side of the Earth AND Moon permanently facing one another.

It may be worth looking up how long this is going to take. I'm too lazy to figure it out right now. We're talking a super long time scale.

It may be such a long time, that either humanity (as we currently know it) will be gone, or maybe our Sun will end it's life by the time that could come about. Something may even disrupt our solar system long before then. Such as our galaxy's destined collision with the Andromeda galaxy.

written by honkeytonk73

| 2 months 4 weeks ago | CH

▲ 0 ▼ | flag spam (0)

^ Interesting, I didn't know that so I looked it up.

http://starryskies.com/articles/2007/10/primal-future-moon.html

In summary:

Earth's rotation is being slowed by the friction between the oceans and the ocean floor

This will continue until (in a few billion years) Earth's tidal bulges align with an imaginary line running through the center of the Earth/Moon system

Earth's rotation will then cease slowing down.

when it does happen: Earth's day will be a month long (960 hours a day) and our month will be forty days long

those on the Moon looking back at Earth would see the same face of Earth – just as now we see only one face of the Moon.

to anyone still on Earth, the Moon will have moved far enough away that it appears much smaller

there would be no more solar eclipses

written by shuac

| 2 months 4 weeks ago | CH

▲ 0 ▼ | flag spam (0)

It's sad but Saturn is leaving the Northern ecliptic and crossing over to the dark side for our Southern hemisphere Australian friends to enjoy for the next 15 years. I started observing Saturn 8 years ago when it was around as high as it would get in the Alaskan sky. I think the next really good Saturn observing for anyone in Alaska will be the year 2023 or so. Unfortunately the planet takes ~30 Earth years to go around the Sun once. On the bright side, Jupiter is now leaving the far South ecliptic and heading back up for us Northern observers. Thankfully, it orbits much quicker than Saturn.

written by deathcow

| 2 months 4 weeks ago | CH

▲ 0 ▼ | flag spam (0)

Deathcow, do you have a link for this info about the north/south ecliptic? I can't find it. Since Earth takes only a year to go around the sun, we always catch up to our neighbors faster than they catch up to us.

But you're right: if Saturn had a tilt in its orbital plane, it will not be visible to half the Earth for an extended period. I've just not heard of that before. Is that what you're saying?

Or because you're in such a high latitude (Alaska), that you don't get the same chance as the rest of us to enjoy celestial bodies? That's understandable. Worry not, one will not have to go all the way to Australia to enjoy Saturn. They just can't be in Alaska. But then, who is? Kidding.

I know that Saturn's rings will "disappear" next year due to our vantage point only to come back later, like they always do. I just saw Saturn last month with my 6" Newtonian reflector here in NC, USA. It was beautiful. Jupiter is really great this month here too, nice & "zenithy," as I call it.

written by shuac

| 2 months 4 weeks ago | CH

▲ 0 ▼ | flag spam (0)

Submit Comment

who voted for this video

Raigen

- kulpims