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The planet Saturn is hand down the most beautiful
planet in our solar system. It's system of rings is simply
breathtaking and is sure to wow anyone who seems them through a
telescope for the first time. If you take someone viewing
one night who has never seen Saturn before, it is always a good
idea to show them Saturn last because the reality is, to a
novice, nothing can top Saturn and they will not be impressed by
anything else you show them.
Saturn is made of hydrogen and helium. Winds around
Saturn's equator can reach 500meters per second. The
yellow and gold bands that encompass Saturn are created by these
winds. The rings are definitely the most prominent feature
of Saturn. They are mostly made of water ice and extend
hundreds of thousands kilometers from the planet. The
matter that comprises the rings range in size from microscopic
to 40 or more meters in diameter. The rings are divided
into two main Groups, the A ring and the B ring. The
gravitational effects of the moon Mimas clears the space between
the two rings. Saturn has a magnetic field which is over
500 times as strong as Earth's, but not nearly as strong as
Jupiter's. Hubble Space Telescope has spent a great deal
of time imaging Saturn and has photographed aurorae similar to
what those found on Earth.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have both visited and studied Saturn in
the past. The most recent spacecraft to visit this giant
planet is the Cassini spacecraft. Cassini will study
Saturn for four years. In 1995, it sent it's Huygens probe
into the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.
Thus far, spacecraft visiting Saturn have found 52 moons, two of
which orbit within spaces between the rings.
Titan is Saturn's largest moon and is easily seen through
most amateur telescopes. Titan is larger than Mercury and
is 5,150km (3,200 miles) across. It is thought to have an
atmosphere similar to early Earth's. It is made up of 95%
nitrogen and traces of methane. Titan's atmosphere extends
10 times as far as Earth's atmosphere.
| Mass (kg)
| 5.69 x 1026
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| Diameter (km)
| 120660
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| Mean density (kg/m3)
| 690
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| Escape velocity (m/s)
| 35600
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| Average distance from Sun
| 9.537 AU (1,426,725,400 km)
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| Rotation period (length of day in Earth days)
| 0.44 (10.2 Earth hours)
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| Revolution period (length of year in Earth years)
| 29.46
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| Obliquity (tilt of axis degrees)
| 26.7
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| Orbit inclination (degrees)
| 2.49
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| Orbit eccentricity (deviation from circular)
| 0.056
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| Mean temperature (K)
| 88 K (1 bar level)
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| Visual geometric albedo (reflectivity)
| 0.46
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| Atmospheric components
| 97% hydrogen,
3% helium,
.05% methane
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| Rings
| Rings are
270,000 km in diameter,
but only a few hundred meters thick.
Particles are centimeters to decameters
in size and are ice (some may be covered
with ice); there are traces of silicate
and carbon minerals. There are four main
ring groups and three more faint, narrow
ring groups separated by gaps called divisions.
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Picture of The Planet
Saturn
with 4 moons visible
Close Up photograph
of
Saturn's Rings
Image of
Haze
of Titan's Atmosphere
Picture of
Moon Mimas |
