Why Saturn’s famous rings are about to all but disappear from view

Saturn may be one of the most breathtaking objects in the night sky, but this weekend, it will appear strangely incomplete. According to an article published in the New York Times, Earth and Saturn are moving into an orbital alignment known as a ring-plane crossing, where the planet's ultrathin rings turn edge-on to our viewpoint. When that happens, they become nearly invisible through backyard telescopes, giving the illusion that Saturn's magnificent halo has disappeared.

Damian Peach, an English astrophotographer who frequently photographs the gas giant in striking images, says that even modest-sized telescopes typically show the rings readily. But this coming weekend, the scene seen from the Earth will be remarkably different: at its closest on Saturday, less than 1 percent of the rings' surface will be visible. The crossing is not a complete one; it remains a rather rare and spectacular view nonetheless. An invisible ring-plane event won't occur until 2038.

The reason has to do with Saturn's tilt. Like Earth, Saturn is angled on its axis, and as both planets move along their respective orbits, the angle from which we view the rings gradually changes. This cyclical effect, which repeats every 13 to 16 years, means the rings periodically widen, narrow, and then vanish from sight. Unfortunately, not all such events are viewable. Crossings in 2009 and earlier in 2025 occurred too close to the sun, making observations impossible.

It's an astronomical trick that long thwarted the early users of the telescope. Galileo Galilei thought Saturn was "triple-bodied" because his crude spyglass could not resolve the rings over 400 years ago. When they later vanished during a crossing, he assumed the strange side "appendages" had fallen away. It wasn't until 1659 that Christiaan Huygens correctly identified them as rings.