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Saturn's iconic rings are expected to disappear within the next six months due to an orbital illusion.
The gas planet's celestial circles, which are estimated to be between 43,500 and 87,000 miles will temporarily be rendered invisible from Earth's perspective due to Saturn's tilt within its axis orbit, positioning the rings on a perfectly horizontal plane from Earth's vantage point, according to Earth.com.
The rings are currently situated at 3.7 degrees, which is already barely perceptible, and will soon be at a zero-degree angle, at which point the bands of cosmic dust will be similar to viewing the edge of a piece of paper “when it’s positioned at the far end of a soccer field,” the website stated.
The rings measure as thin as 300 feet in most places, which means they are imperceptible when viewed from Earth, which is located 746 miles away. The temporary disappearance occurs about every 29.5 years, which is the amount of time it takes Saturn to circumnavigate the Sun.
Saturn's rings are expected to return after March 2025, but will once again disappear in November 2025, according to Earth.com. The rings, which are comprised of ice, rocky debris and dust, are believed to be the remnants of comets, asteroids and moons destroyed by Saturn's gravitational pull and could disappear permanently in as little as 300 million years as they're “being pulled into Saturn by gravity as a dusty rain of ice particles under the influence of Saturn’s magnetic field," according to NASA.