# Would Saturn's rings be visible from Titan (or any of the other moons)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 18, 2012, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466 "2012-12-18T23:20:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/1 "2012-12-18T23:20:34Z")
If so, what would they look like? ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/2 "2012-12-18T23:25:02Z")
Well, since they’re visible from Earth… ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/3 "2012-12-18T23:27:30Z")
Not when the Earth is lined up with the rings ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/4 "2012-12-18T23:31:18Z")
I’m not sure if you can see anything at all but black shapes against the stars that far from the Sun with the unaided eye. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/5 "2012-12-18T23:32:42Z")
Titan orbits in the plane of Saturn’s rings, so they would be difficult to see, but not impossible (if you ignore the fact that Titan’s atmosphere is more or less opaque). Especially from the poles the rings should be visible. The rings would also be visible from some of the other satellites, not all of which orbit exactly in the ring plane. See this page for a little more info. > **[Johnston's Archive--Space Art: Saturn](http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/spaceart/art-s.html)** > > Space art ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/6 "2012-12-18T23:36:12Z")
Whem the rings are backlit they should be visible as a thin, bright line; they would stand out more clearly when the Sun is eclipsed by Saturn itself, I think. Some of the more distant moons orbit out of the ring plane altogether; the rings would be easily visible, but much less impressive from these distant objects. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/7 "2012-12-19T01:07:07Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I’m not sure if you can see anything at all but black shapes against the stars that far from the Sun with the unaided eye. Even on Pluto, the Sun is [bright enough](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/03/15/bafact-math-how-bright-is-the-sun-from-pluto/#.UNESuKzs8eM) to easily read a book by, some 450 times brighter than a full Moon, enough to be painful to look at directly. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/8 "2012-12-19T01:21:59Z")
> [@Michael63129](#): > > Even on Pluto, the Sun is [bright enough](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2012/03/15/bafact-math-how-bright-is-the-sun-from-pluto/#.UNESuKzs8eM) to easily read a book by, some 450 times brighter than a full Moon, enough to be painful to look at directly. That’s interesting; thanks for posting it. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/9 "2012-12-19T02:20:31Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > That’s interesting; thanks for posting it. Yeah, to put it in another perspective, [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lux) lists the full Moon as being up to 1 lux, while typical indoor lighting is around 50 to 500 lux, so the intensity of sunlight on Pluto is similar (our eyes readily adapt to an extremely wide range of light intensities, plus the eye’s response is logarithmic; doubling the intensity of light doesn’t double perceived brightness). Also, given that Saturn is about 9.55 times further from the Sun than Earth, the intensity of sunlight on Saturn would be about 90 times less (9.55^2) than Earth, or similar to an overcast day. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/10 "2012-12-19T06:06:37Z")
I am puzzled as to why this is even an issue. The [Cassini spacecraft](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html) has been right in there amongst Saturn’s moons, and has sent back excellent and dramatic pictures of the rings, from quite close up. Of course, you can see them from Earth too, with quite a low powered telescope. (I have seen them with one I bought from teh drugstore for about $30.) OK, from the actual position of a moon the rings might be pretty much edge on. However, I very much doubt that all the moons and rings are orbiting in _exactly_ the same plane, and I am pretty sure that I have seen Cassini pictures where the rings are edge on, yet still clearly visible. So I say (modulo Titan’s opaque atmosphere), the answer is yes, definitely. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/11 "2012-12-19T06:14:28Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > I am puzzled as to why this is even an issue. The [Cassini spacecraft](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html) has been right in there amongst Saturn’s moons, and has sent back excellent and dramatic pictures of the rings, from quite close up. Correct me if I’m wrong, but IIRC almost none of the photos from this or other probes would represent what you’d actually see with your bare glims if you were floating alongside it. Almost everything is digitally enhanced and false-colored out the wazoo. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/12 "2012-12-19T09:56:33Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Correct me if I’m wrong, but IIRC almost none of the photos from this or other probes would represent what you’d actually see with your bare glims if you were floating alongside it. Almost everything is digitally enhanced and false-colored out the wazoo. Well, maybe, but there has to be something registering in the camera to be false-colored, and, as others in the thread have pointed out, there is plenty enough light out there to see by. Heck, when I saw Saturn and its rings in my cheapie telescope, I was viewing it via reflected sunlight, and was still able to see it, and see some color (although no detail) after that light had been reflected back again over however many millions of miles to Earth. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/13 "2012-12-19T10:07:23Z")
Incidentally, here is what NASA says is a [_natural colored image_](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20120829.html) from Cassini, showing Titan, and the rings as seen edge on against Saturn in the background. You can also see the dramatic shadow of the rings, including the Cassini division between them, on the planet’s face. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/14 "2012-12-19T14:21:56Z")
Even though the rings are very thin (about a kilometre in places) they would reflect a lot of light, so would be visible as a line. If seen exactly edge-on from Titan the observer wouldn’t see any thickness to the line, but it would be there and quite bright. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/15 "2012-12-19T14:48:43Z")
[Extraterrestrial Skies.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_skies) ---
**Author:** ![cknight222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4da419/32.png) [@cknight222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cknight222)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/16 "2016-06-08T00:16:39Z")
In regards to the visibility of the rings from Titan (assuming that you were standing on the surface) they would not be visible. Titan’s surface is shrouded by a thick haze and clouds that also make viewing any astronomical body from the surface impossible. The only discernible astronomical body would be the Sun but only as a bright patch in the clouds. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-saturns-rings-be-visible-from-titan-or-any-of-the-other-moons/644466/17 "2016-06-08T00:22:33Z")
Of course there’s enough light there to see by. You know what’s illuminated by the same amount of light as is present at Saturn? Saturn. And you can see that very easily, with the naked eye, even from many AU away. If you can see it all the way from here, then of course you could see it from right up close.