Saturn is the sixth planet
from the Sun. It has 21 known moons and was once thought to be
the only planet that has a ring. About 800 Earths could fit into
Saturn. A day on Saturn is only 10 hours and 40 minutes, but a year
is, much longer, equal to 26.9 Earth years.
The gravity on Saturn is
1.32 times Earth's gravity. Voyager's journey to Saturn discovered
a thin glowing cloud of hydrogen surrounding the planet. The gas is
excited and caused to glow by ultraviolet energy from the Sun. The
shape of the hydrogen cloud is like a giant doughnut and the outer
edges are a little more than a million kilometers from the planet.
The source of the hydrogen seems to be the atmosphere of Saturn's
moon, Titan. As hydrogen containing compounds in Titan's atmosphere
are broken down by energy from the Sun, some of the hydrogen escapes
and is then caught up and collected into the doughnut-shaped holding
area around Saturn.
Rings around Saturn
A French astronomer,
Jean Domenique Cassini, spotted a division in the supposedly large
single ring. It was named the Cassini Division and thought to be
a gap separating outer Ring A from inner Ring B. Later Ring C was
discovered. Ring C is very thin; so thin that astronomers can see
right through it. Ring C came to be known as the Dusky Ring or the
Creppe Ring. Another ring was discovered in 1979 by Voyager
spacecraft. It was given the name Ring F. Ring F is 30 kilometers in
width. Voyager also discovered a D Ring, E Ring, and a G Ring.
Saturn's Atmosphere
Saturn's top atmosphere
glows a pale yellow, muted by the hydrogen haze enclosing the
planet. It does not have the rich color like Jupiter. During Voyager's
trip to Saturn, it discovered what could be a huge storm
similar to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. Saturn's top cloud is
about -180°C. Saturn's atmosphere is torn by winds four to
five times stronger than Jupiter's winds.
The most surprising
finding on Saturn is the hottest gases in the solar system. The
gases are around Saturn at a distance 724,000 kilometers from
Saturn's cloud tops. The temperature of the gases ranges from 600
million to more than a billion kelvin, which makes it 300 times
hotter than the temperature of the solar corona and twice
as hot as a similar cloud around Jupiter.
Images of Saturn
Image of Saturn with its
moons.
http://bang.lanl.gov/solarsys/saturn.htm
Image of Saturn and its
rings (all you can see is one line).
http://bang.lanl.gov/solarsys/saturn.htm
Return Back To
Home or Proceed To Next
Planet