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beautiful
planet. It has many rings that are visible through small telescopes. It
has clouds surrounding its surface.
The ancient people
thousands of years ago looked up at the little sky and saw five planets.
They were Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn.
Saturn had many names in
ancient times. To the Egyptians it was called Horus. The Romans called
it Saturn, the name we use today.
Soon after telescopes we
invented, Galileo made a big discovery. Galileo saw that Saturn had
handles. His telescope was far to small to see that they were rings.
On April 6, 1973, America
launched Pioneer-Saturn. Its mission was to fly near Jupiter and Saturn.
Pioneer- Saturn reached Saturn in September 1979. The probe found that
the clouds of Saturn are storms, and it found two new rings in Saturn’s
ring system.
In 1977 the Voyagers were
launched. They found out more about the moons and that the particles in
the rings can range from dust size to house size particles.
Scientist still have many
questions about Saturn. Probes cant teach everything. Someday we might
people to this ringed planet.
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Quick
Facts
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Length of year: |
29½
Earth years |
| Length
of day: |
10
hours and 39 minutes |
| Diameter: |
74,600miles |
| Moons: |
23
|
| Distance
from Sun: |
885
million miles |
| Average
speed while orbiting the Sun: |
6 miles per second |
| temperature: |
-300°F |
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