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Saturn also appears brighter when the rings are angled such that they are more visible. For example, during the opposition of 17 December 2002, Saturn appeared at its brightest due to the favorable orientation of its rings relative to the Earth, [178] even though Saturn was closer to the Earth and Sun in late 2003. [178]
Saturn's rings block the view of the northern hemisphere from Earth during the winter solstice, so historical data on the GWS is unavailable during this season, [15] but the Cassini space probe has been able to observe the whole planet since it arrived shortly after the winter solstice in 2004. [16]
Saturn doesn't have any easily visible landmarks to track, and its gassy atmosphere doesn't offer many hints as to how fast it's actually rotating. On top of that, its magnetic field also hides ...
Saturn's orbit plane is inclined 2.485 degrees relative to Earth's, and Jupiter's is inclined 1.303 degrees. The ascending nodes of both planets are similar (100.6 degrees for Jupiter and 113.7 degrees for Saturn), meaning if Saturn is above or below Earth's orbital plane Jupiter usually is too. Because these nodes align so well it would be ...
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The full set of rings, imaged on 19 July 2013 as Saturn eclipses the Sun from the vantage of the Cassini orbiter, 1.2 million kilometres (3 ⁄ 4 million miles) distant. Earth appears as a dot at 4 o'clock, between the G and E rings – with its brightness artificially exaggerated in this photograph.
Iapetus is Saturn's third largest moon, but is too far away to completely eclipse the Sun. Janus, a very close moon to Saturn, has an angular diameter of about 7', meaning that it can fully cover the Sun. Unlike Jupiter, Saturn has a moderate axial tilt of 26.7 degrees. [3]
Astrological inspiration struck recently when three pop stars each sang about a very special time in a young person's life: Not the onset of puberty (we're talking later), not first love (later ...