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Aug 13, 2009 12:23 PM
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Saturn Goes Naked on Its Equinox
Yesterday, Saturn reached its equinox, an event that occurs once every 15 years that creates the illusion that its rings have disappeared. The Cassini spacecraft was there to capture rare images of an apparently ringless Saturn.
As we've mentioned before, once every 15 Earth years, Saturn reaches its equinox, when the ringplane is directly parallel to the sun. This causes the sunlight to hit the thinnest point of the rings, making the ring shadows appear as a thin band against the planet. The Cassini team was able to position the spacecraft in such a way that it was able to capture the illusion, but also captured images of the rings from positions where they were still visible.
Send an email to Lauren Davis, the author of this post, at lauren@io9.com.
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