Saturn Essays (2784 words) - Planetary Science, Gas Giants

Saturn Saturn Saturn is one of the most interesting planets in the solar system. It is the sixth planet in the solar system, and is most famous for its stunning array of rings. It is a very easy planet to pick out in the sky because it is one of the brightest lights in the shy. It also has a very faint greenish color that makes it stand out from the rest of the objects in the sky (?Astronomy for Kids?). Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter being the only planet that is bigger. It also has at least eighteen moons, more than any other planet in the solar system. There have been three voyages to this extraordinary planet, and one is still in process today. The Pioneer II traveled to Saturn in September of 1979, the Voyager missions took place in the 1980's and the Cassini probe began it's voyage in October of 1997 (Kuhn 280-282). There are many aspects of Saturn that make it one of the most extraordinary planets in this solar system. Galileo Galilei was the first to view Saturn's system of rings in the year 1610. Because he happened to be viewing their edge, he failed to recognize them as rings. In fact, he mistakenly interpreted the rings to be two moons similar to those he had discovered near the planet Jupiter. In 1655, a Dutch astronomer named Christiaan Huygens was able to discern what Galileo had thought to be moons as rings. Huygens benefited from a much improved telescope than that used by Galileo. A second moon of Saturn called Iapetus was found by the Italian astronomer Cassini in 1671. He also discovered, in 1675, that Saturn had more than one ring, i.e. a concentric pair of rings. A third ring was discovered by Johann Franz Encke in 1837 using a telescope at the Berlin observatory. Until Pioneer II approached Saturn in September of 1979, the planet was thought to have but three rings (Yenne 125). Saturn is the sixth planet in the solar system, located between Jupiter and Uranus. Its average distance from the Sun is over 850 million miles, compared to Earth's which is 93 million miles. Saturn's orbit, the path it follows around the Sun, is nearly a circle. The closest the planet has come to the Sun is around 840 million miles, while the furthest away it gets is 930 million miles. Since Saturn is so far away from the Sun, it takes a very long time for it to complete its orbit of the Sun. Saturn's year equals 29 and one-half Earth years. A day on Saturn, though, is much shorter than an Earth day; it rotates around once every ten and one-half hours (Kuhn 280-282). Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system. Jupiter is the only planet that is larger. The gas giant is 72 thousand miles in diameter, almost ten times the size of Earth. In spite of its huge size, though, Saturn weighs very little. It is a very light gas planet. Saturn is the least dense planet in the solar system-- so light, in fact, that it would float in water. This planet is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium, like Jupiter, but it is much less dense. The combination of its light weight and fast rotation causes Saturn to spread out, or oblate, its center. Since Saturn is a gas planet, it does not have a solid surface. Spacecraft are unable to land on this type of surface. The clouds that are seen when looking at Saturn are just the top layer of a very deep layer that covers a center of liquid hydrogen. The clouds are blown by constant winds that reach speeds up to one thousand miles per hour at the equator of the planet (?Great Space Place?). The rings of Saturn are more spectacular than those of any other planet. Although this planet's rings are very wide, extending from the top of its atmosphere to well beyond the orbits of its closest moons, they are very thin, measuring no more than a few kilometers (about a mile) in thickness (?Great Space Place?). The Pioneer 11 flyby made several discoveries