Lyceum B - Astronomy - Week 28 - Saturn
- May 18, 2022
- 3 min read
Saturn is a gas giant. Saturn is mainly made of hydrogen and helium much like its neighbor, Neptune. It has the lowest density of all the planets, meaning it is extensively lightweight.
It is the 6th planet out from the Sun and the 2nd largest planet in the Solar system. Its main distinguishing feature are its rings. These rings were first observed by Galileo in 1610.
These rings are made up of billions of lumps of ice and ice covered rocks and dust particles. These rings range in size from a grain of sand size to the size of a house.
We think perhaps these are the remnants from on of its ancient moons shattering. The rings reach so far out into space that their length is almost the same distance as earth is to our moon. But they are only 30 to 300 feet thick, which is quite thin.
What we are seeing is thousands of thin, narrow rings that are nestled inside each other in groupings with a wide gap (called the Cassini division) in between.
These divisions are caused by tiny moons whose gravity diverts the pieces of ice revolving around the planet. - How the Universe Works
From nasa.gov:
Asteroids and meteoroids sometimes crash into these moons and break them into pieces. The rings could be made from these broken pieces of moons. The rings may also be made from material left over from when Saturn first formed.
From far away, Saturn looks like it has seven large rings. Each large ring is named for a letter of the alphabet. The rings were named in the order they were discovered. The first ring discovered was named the A ring, but it is not the ring closest to or farthest from Saturn.
Some of the rings are close together. Others have large gaps between them. The rings do not sit still. They circle around Saturn at very high speeds. A closer look shows that each large ring is made up of many small rings. The small rings are sometimes called ringlets. More rings and ringlets could still be discovered.
Saturn has 60 moons that we know about. Most of these moons are just chunks of ice, but the largest, Titan, has an atmosphere thicker than Earth's and is covered by dense orange clouds. Voyager 1 sent back information on the atmosphere found on one of Saturn's moons - Titan. While no life was found on Titan, the chemical elements for life were detected.
Saturn is titled at a 27°F angle. Saturn takes 29 1/2 years to go around the Sun. Twice in that revolution, we see the rings of Saturn fully open and twice we see them sideways, making the planet appear ringless.
It wasn't until the 1650s when Dutch astronomer, physicist and mathematician, Christian Huygens, built a powerful telescope that showed why Saturn seemed to change shape. He was able to not only observe that something was there, but to see it clearly enough that he could describe it accurately. He also discovered Titan, as well as the Orion Nebula. A European space probe to Saturn was named in his honour. Note: Huygens also did important research into the nature of light and invented one of the first pendulum clocks - the grandfather clock.
Cassini is the latest NASA spacecraft to explore Saturn. Cassini left Earth in 1997 and arrived at Saturn seven years later, in 2024. The spacecraft has been orbiting the planet since then. Cassini sends new pictures and information back to Earth all the time. Cassini has taken amazing pictures of Saturn's rings. - nasa.gov
What Di Cassini See During Its Historic Mission to Saturn? 1997-2017
Saturns Rings Are Disappearing
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Videos
Professor Dave Explains Astronomy - 8:57 min
Jupiter: King of the Planets
Introduction to Astronomy Crash Course #18
Saturn - 12:15 min
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