TOPOGRAPHY
| The wind and storms on Saturn are generated mainly by the planet's internal heat, rather than by heat received from the sun. Saturn receives only one per cent of the solar heat that Earth does. At the center of Saturn, there is thought to be a rocky core, twice the size of Earth. Surrounding the core is a layer of highly compressed "metallic" hydrogen, and above that, a layer of ordinary liquid hydrogen mixed with same liquid helium. Like Jupiter, nearly 80% of Saturn's mass is hydrogen, the simplest element, with most of the remainder taken up by helium, the second most common element in the Solar System. |