The Slant on Saturn’s Rings
This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows Saturn’s Southern Hemisphere and the southern face of its rings in Infrared light.
Saturn experiences seasonal tilts away from and toward the Sun, much the same way Earth does, over the course of its 29.5-year orbit. This means that approximately every 30 years, we can catch Saturn with its rings at their maximum tilt of 27 degrees toward Earth and get the best glimpse of Saturn’s South Pole and the southern side of the planet’s rings.
Credit: NASA/ESA and E. Karkoschka (University of Arizona)
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