Today, the rings of Saturn are still rather mysterious, like they have been since the very first observations in the year 1610. Saturn, as a planet, could also be observed with the naked eye and thus it was also known in ancient times. However, in that year, Galileo was experimenting with his telescope, the instrument that was destined to revolutionize the world of astronomy. That winter evening in 1610, the telescope was pointed towards Saturn and what Galileo saw was very surprising: Saturn was not a planet like all the others, but it seemed to have two almost symmetrical bulges on each side of the disk, which sort of resembled a pair of ears. The only hypothesis that Galileo could formulate, though even he was not very convinced, was that there were two enormous moons next to the planet. Today, we know that he was also particularly unlucky. In fact, the planet takes almost thirty years to complete a whole revolution around the Sun. Its rings have a certain inclination with respect to the plane of the orbit: thus, during its movement, Saturn shows its upper surface for several years and then the lower surface. During the intermediate periods, the rings are visible on edge, and since they are very thin, cannot be seen with weak instruments. Galileo had made his observation exactly during the period in which it is difficult to see the rings, just prior to their disappearance.
Today, the rings of Saturn are still rather mysterious, like they have been since the very first observations in the year 1610. Saturn, as a planet, could also be observed with the naked eye and thus it was also known in ancient times. However, in that year, Galileo was experimenting with his telescope, the instrument that was destined to revolutionize the world of astronomy. That winter evening in 1610, the telescope was pointed towards Saturn and what Galileo saw was very surprising: Saturn was not a planet like all the others, but it seemed to have two almost symmetrical bulges on each side of the disk, which sort of resembled a pair of ears. The only hypothesis that Galileo could formulate, though even he was not very convinced, was that there were two enormous moons next to the planet. Today, we know that he was also particularly unlucky. In fact, the planet takes almost thirty years to complete a whole revolution around the Sun. Its rings have a certain inclination with respect to the plane of the orbit: thus, during its movement, Saturn shows its upper surface for several years and then the lower surface. During the intermediate periods, the rings are visible on edge, and since they are very thin, cannot be seen with weak instruments. Galileo had made his observation exactly during the period in which it is difficult to see the rings, just prior to their disappearance.
