Aug 11, 2009
Saturn Equinox 2009
August 11, 2009—A mystery object that punched through one of Saturn‘s thin outer rings created a glittering spray of ice crystals and pulled some material along in its wake, as seen in this rare image recently released by NASA’s Cassini orbiter.
It’s believed that the object is a moonlet. yes a little moon. There are some 60 moonlets around Saturn. Ok so this is what happens to make Saturn disappear:
“Whenever equinox occurs on Saturn, sunlight will hit Saturn’s thin rings, the ring plane, edge-on,” said Spilker.”The light reflecting off this extremely narrow band is so small that for all intents and purposes the rings simply vanish.”
Saturn’s rings are 200,000 miles wide, but amazingly are only about 30 feet thick.
see :
Science Daily
Cassini Equinox Mission
thoughts from