Saturn Is A Large And Beautiful Planet. It May Be Best Know Known For
the prominent rings that surround it, which gives the planet its unusual appearance. Saturn is one of the nine planets orbiting in our solar system. It is the sixth planet from the sun in the Milky Way galaxy.
The ancient symbol for Saturn is. Astronomers still use this symbol to represent the planet. It was named after the ancient Roman god of planting and harvest. To honor Saturn, every year the ancient Romans held a joy- filled feast known as the Saturnalia. This festival began near the end of December and lasted for a week. During the festival period, prisoners were freed from jail as an act of good will; Roman armies were not permitted to start any new wars; and schools and shops remained closed to enable everyone to enjoy the festivities. Special celebrations that a number of our modern Christmas customs including Christmas dinners, holiday parties, and the practice can all be traced back to the Saturnalia.
The Italian astronomer Galileo first viewed Saturn through a telescope in 1610. When Galileo looked at Saturn through his telescope, he was surprised to see that Saturn seemed to have puffy bulges on both sides instead of being round. Galileo described Saturn with ?ears?. As time passed, new and improved telescopes were developed, so astronomers were better able to view the heavens. In 1656, a Dutch astronomer named Christain Huygens also noted the bulges on both sides of Saturn. Huygens realized that what had looked like powder puffs or ears were actually nothing of the sort. Instead, Huygens suggested that a ring surrounded the planet. At the time, Huygens believed that the ring surrounding Saturn was a solid band of some substance. This was an astonishing discovery. Before Huygens’ observation, astronomers had no idea that a separate ring might surround a planet. In 1675, a French astronomer named Giovanni Domenico Cassini spent a good deal of time studying Saturn. He observed a dark band in what was thought to be a single ring and realized that the band was really a gap between two separate rings. Cassini thus identified two of Saturn’s major rings.
Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system. Only Jupiter is larger, Saturn’s diameter is 74,600 miles (120, 000 kilometers). That makes the planet nearly ten times as wide as Earth. From Earth we see Saturn as a bright ?star? in our sky; it takes a telescope to see its rings. Within our solar system, Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun; Earth is the third. Saturn is about 9? farther away from the sun than the Earth. Like other planets, Saturn orbits the sun. However, because it is so far away and moves at a somewhat slow pace, Saturn needs more time than Earth to make one revolution around the sun. The Earth requires 365 days, or one year, to orbit the sun. Saturn needs nearly 29? Earth years to finish its orbit. At the same time Saturn orbits the sun it is also rotating on its axis. It takes Saturn 10 hours and 39 minutes to complete a rotation.
Saturn is actually a large whirling body of gases. It not a solid like Earth. You could not stand or drive a car on Saturn. Dark and light belts appear on Saturn’s clouds. Beautifully colored bands of pale gold, beige, and white can be seen, although these bands are not as prominent as Jupiter. These areas are actually made up of mostly poisonous gases such as ammonia and methane. Some water vapor is present as well. Normally, these gases are invisible. However, because it is extremely cold this far from the sun, the gases have frozen and formed crystals. When we see the dark and light belts on Saturn, we’re really looking at the frozen solid crystals of gases. Saturn’s clouds are not quite motionless areas. Scientists have learned that a good deal of activity occurs in these regions. There are raging storms and powerful gusting winds. One particularly large storm on the planet may be seen just below Saturn’s equator. This turbulent storm center appears as a massive rose- colored oval spot on the planet. The winds on Saturn blow continually at tremendous speeds. In fact, Saturn’s winds may reach the speeds of over 1,000 miles per hour. That’s more that three times the speed of the strongest winds ever experienced on Earth. While the Earth’s atmosphere largely consists of nitrogen and oxygen, the most common elements in Saturn’s atmosphere are hydrogen and helium. Some poisonous gases are present in smaller amounts as well. Saturn’s atmosphere is also considerably deeper that Earth’s. It extends many more miles into he planets interior. Some scientists believe that toward Saturn’s interior the hydrogen and helium on the planet are mostly liquid. The pressure on these elements from the atmosphere above has caused them to remain in a fluid state. The only solid part of Saturn may be found at the innermost center. Here a very tiny core of extremely hot iron and other hardened materials may exist. Like Earth, Saturn experiences different seasons and temperature changes. Because Saturn takes so much longer than Earth to orbit the sun, Saturn’s seasons are much longer.
While a season on Earth only lasts for several months, Saturn’s seasons are seven and a half years long. No matter what the season is, Saturn is always much colder than Earth. This is because the giant planet is much father away from the sun. Saturn is unimaginably cold. At the outer edge of the planet’s clouds, the temperature may drop to about ?285 F (-176 C). Beneath Saturn’s clouds, the temperatures at the inner levels of the planet tend to be somewhat higher. Saturn generates more than twice as much heat as it receives from the sun. Scientists aren’t exactly sure why this happens. One theory is that a tremendous amount of heat or energy is worked up as the helium on Saturn slowly sinks through the area of liquid hydrogen within the planet. Another theory has to do with the planet’s creation. Some scientists think that Saturn’s internal heat has been present on the planet for billions of years. They believe this source of energy was created when the planet formed. According to their theory, the gases and various other materials that make up Saturn cam together with a tremendous impact. This produced a great deal of heat, which remained within the planet, unable to escape easily through the layers of gases that engulfed it. Over the course of time, some heat has been able to rise to Saturn’s outer level. From there, it has escaped from the planet. However, the bulk of the heart, or energy, remains trapped on Saturn. This causes the planet’s temperature to be higher than might be expected.
Frequently, astronomers will describe a planet in terms of its mass. A planet’s mass is the total amount of material that makes up the planet. Saturn’s mass is 95 times greater than that of Earth. Jupiter is the only planet in the solar system with a greater mass than Saturn’s. Density is another way planets are measured. While a planet’s mass is a measure of the amount of material composing it, the density of a planet tells us how closely packed together these materials are. Solids tend to be more tightly packed than liquids and gases. Earth, which has a solid interior, has the highest density of all the planets in the solar system. Saturn, on the other hand, is primarily a gaseous planet. It has the lowest density of any planet. Saturn’s density is only about one eighth as great as Earth’s. This means that for its huge size, Saturn is a rather light planet. You might think of Saturn as a giant foam rubber ball. If there were a lake would actually float. This is because Saturn’s density is less than what of water. Gravity is an invisible force that pulls everything toward a planet’s center. For example, if a circus juggler doesn’t catch the objects he tosses into the air, they will fall to the ground. Gravity is the force that pulls them down. The same gravitational force causes autumn leaves to drop to the forest floor as the trees shed them. Gravity also causes snow to fall on a snowbank. The same gravitational pull we experience on Earth occurs on Saturn and the other planets in the solar system. The gravitational pill on Saturn is slightly stronger than it is on Earth.
In 1973, the United States launched an unmanned spacecraft to study the giant gaseous planets of Jupiter and Saturn. The spacecraft, named the Pioneer- Saturn, o Pioneer II, flew within 13,000 miles of Saturn in September 1979. The probe sent back valuable scientific data and detailed photographs of the planet and its outer rings. These rings are closely spaced together. Although Saturn may give the appearance of having a few large rings surrounding it, Saturn’s major rings actually consist of many smaller parts or ringlets. Saturn’s rings are mostly made up of chinks of ice. The rings may also contain particles of dust and rock. These particles vary greatly in size. Saturn’s ring system is extremely wide. The distance across Saturn’s outermost ring is nearly 180,000 miles. However, although they are extremely wide, scientists believe them to be less then 10 miles thick.
Saturn’s many moons include: Pan, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, Mimas, Encelados, Tethys, Telesto, Calypso, Dione, Helene, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Phoebe (in order of smallest to largest distance from Saturn).
Saturn may be the most dazzling planet in the solar system. In fact, it has often been called the “Queen of the Planets?. Scientists have learned a great deal about Saturn since 1610, when Galileo discovered its unusual nature. Powerful modern telescopes and space probes have provided us with far greater knowledge about the planet. Yet astronomers realize that there is still more to learn. They hope that future space flights will provide the key to unlock the mysteries held by Saturn- the stunning jewel- like planet in the heavens.
