An Astronomical Comparison: Mercury Vs. Saturn

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC:

An Astronomical Comparison: Mercury vs. Saturn

The vast, empty, darkness of our universe has provided humans with questions for the entirety of our existence. As the science of astronomy has developed throughout hundreds of years, humans have slowly worked to create answers for these questions. As we increasingly learn about our universe, comparisons can be made about planets in our solar system. By comparing terrestrial and jovian planets, we can truly grasp the differences and similarities between these planets. By analyzing the planets, Mercury and Saturn, we can easily see the specific features of both planets to see what makes them truly unique.

The eight planets in our solar system are divided into two categories;

Perhaps the most notable difference is its moon and rings. Throughout history, many people have been able to see Saturn’s wonderful rings illustrated in images of the planet. Oddly enough, all four jovian planets actually contain rings, it is only Saturn’s rings however, that are the most visible from Earth. These rings are made of pieces of asteroids and ice, all of which orbit the planet at very high speeds (Williams, 2016). Generally, the further a planet is from a star, the cooler its atmosphere tends to be. With this said, it becomes obvious as to why there is icy matter on this planet. The moons of Saturn are also an impeccable attribute. It is home to a total of 53 confirmed moons. To put this into perspective, its largest moon, is roughly half of the size of earth. Scientists have gone on to say that this same moon “is one of the most Earth-like worlds we have found to date” (Redd, 2016). This is interesting, considering that gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter are relatively inhospitable to life as we know it. To further highlight some of the differences between Saturn and the terrestrial planets, Saturn is much different in respects to its magnetic field. It tends to have a much weaker field due to differences in its core. While terrestrial planets have a core that primarily consists of iron, the core of Saturn is composed of rock, hydrogen, and metal (Jomard,