Saturn
Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun, is considered to be the
most beautiful sight in the solar system because of its vast ring
system. The rings are made mostly of icy particles ranging in
size from 1/1000 of a mm to 100 km in diameter (1). These rings
are mostly empty space and are only about 1.5 km thick (2).
Although there appears to be three major rings in Saturn, the
Voyager spacecraft has confirmed that there are at least seven
major rings that scientists have lettered from A to G (1). These
main rings are made up of tens of thousands of little ringlets
that weave in and out of each other (1).
There are many interesting features about Saturn other than its
ring system. For example, it is the most oblate planet in the
solar system (2). This means that its diameter is wider at the
equator than it is at the poles. This is caused by its high speed
of rotation around its axis (10.5 hours in a day) causing the
planet to bulge at the equator (1). Saturn is also unique in that
it is the least dense of all the planets and is the only planet
less dense than water (it would float if there were a pool large
enough)(1). Saturn also has many violent storms on it, and one
enormous lightning storm may have lasted over ten months (1).
Some of the winds at Saturn’s equator can blow at around
1800 km/h, four times faster than the fastest winds on Jupiter
(1).
Saturn’s atmosphere is like Jupiter’s in many ways. Its
atmosphere is made up of mostly hydrogen and helium (96.3% H,
3.3% He)(2), and its clouds form alternating colored bands (1).
In the southern hemisphere there is a red-orange oval feature,
most likely a smaller version of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
(1). Saturn has a huge magnetic field, second in size to
Jupiter’s magnetosphere, and Saturn’s core may be
similar to Jupiter’s small inner core (1). Also like
Jupiter, Saturn gives off more heat than it receives from the Sun
because it is so far away from it (1427 million km)(1).
Saturn has more moons than any other planet (approximately
23)(1). Its largest moon is Titan, the second largest in the
solar system next to Ganymede. Titan has a substantial atmosphere
made mostly of nitrogen, but it also contains traces of methane,
hydrogen cyanide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and some
others (1). The combination of these gasses gives it a hazy
orange glow (1). Before life formed on Earth, it looked very
similar to the way Titan looks now, so it can be concluded that
Titan may indeed one day grow to support life (1).