welcome to lab 360. your ultimate space all the news from the world of astronomy
if you are a space fan who wishes to explore the sky but is unable to do so due to a lack of
scientific gear then what are your options you're fortunate because whether you have a telescope or
not you'll be able to see this rare cosmic event that is going on currently and will be visible
throughout april 2022 mars, venus, jupiter and saturn four planets in our solar system
have aligned close to each other producing a planetary quartet in the sky this planetary
alignment or conjunction will be visible with the naked eye before daybreak and one does not
need high tech gear to see this phenomenon a pair of basic binoculars will do mars venus
and saturn were all visible in the early morning sky at the beginning of april according to nasa
the three planets are now joined by jupiter and for the rest of april the four planets can
be viewed in a straight line a conjunction is a celestial event in which two planets
a planet and their moon or a planet and a star appear close together in the night sky of earth
these aren't particularly significant in terms of astronomy but they're a visual treat for sure
these conjunctions of planets occur regularly in our solar system because the planets orbit the sun
on roughly the same plane the ecliptic plane and hence trace similar paths across our sky
venous orbit is closer to the sun than earth's and jupiter's orbit is considerably farther away
therefore the apparent alignment or proximity is really a mirage
the conjunction will continue on may 1st but the locations of jupiter and venus will be reversed
observers will see them combined into a dazzling stunning glow due to the glare from both planets
this astronomical event will be similar to the one in 2020 when jupiter and saturn aligned and
were visible to the naked eye the conjunction may be observed around the world in the early
morning hours by facing easter toward the sunrise as long as city lights don't interfere
so get away from the city and treat yourselves to this once-in-a-lifetime occurrence
it looks like christmas has come early for all the space lovers out there what do you guys think
drop in your comments below and don't forget to subscribe to lab 360 your ultimate space for
all the videos from the world of astronomy saturn the sixth planet in our solar system is the most
remarkable best viewed through a telescope the yellow and gold gossamerings encircling the planet
are not only its most outstanding feature but also the one that make it instantly recognizable
galileo galilei was the first to observe saturn's rings in 1610. 45 years later using a more
powerful telescope dutch astronomer christiane higgins claimed that saturn had a thin flat ring
advances in science in the years following taught us that saturn actually has many rings
these were made of billions of particles of ice and rock ranging in size from a grain of salt to
the size of a building the particles are believed to be debris left over from comets asteroids and
exploded moons a recent study also suggested the rings may be the dwarf planet carcasses
so from where did saturn get these rings formerly scientists claimed that the rings may have come
with the planet itself when the solar system itself was being formed four billion years ago
this was a natural assumption because it was believed that there must have been a lot of
dust and particles that helped create this ring before everything eventually settled down but
the two missions sent by nasa concluded that the rings were much younger only about 10 to
100 million years this information was first sent by nasa's voyager spacecraft when it crossed the
planet at extremely close quarters in the 1980s later in 2017 nasa spacecraft cassini was sent
to specifically unearth information about saturn and its rings and surprisingly it supported the
voyager's findings that means when dinosaurs were roaming the earth 4 billion years ago saturn was
sans its rings as much as we would like to regale the beautiful rings of saturn nasa scientists
have recently come up with a doomsday prediction concerning their survival there are chances that
the rings will disappear soon in some time saturn will no longer have its beautiful gossamer circle
sadly the rings are depleting even as you watch this video today this loss is attributed to what
has been termed as the ring phenomenon having said this though the destruction of saturn's
rings is not a new development unbeknownst to us this particle by particle destruction
has been going on for millions of years as we saw earlier the rings which are made of ice particles
rocks and dust are captured by the planet's gravitational pull forming an orbital path around
it but each time a meteorite crashes into the ring it disturbs the balance of the particles and
adds an electric charge to them the same occurs during a geomagnetic storm generated by the sun
saturn's electromagnetic field pulls the charged particles from the ring towards it where they
vaporize into the planet's cloudy atmosphere and just like that bit by bit the rings disappear
this is called the ring rain and is what is likely going to be the death of saturn's rings
nasa's prediction that with time saturn will lose its rings in entirety has been supported by space
agencies from across the globe like the european space agency ESA and japan space agency JAXA
while this prediction is likely to come true it is thankfully not going to be in our lifetime
scientists believe that it will take at least 300 million years for saturn to lose all its
rings however it will lose its scorings in 100 million years
what do you guys think drop in your comments to let us know and don't forget to subscribe