Saturn

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Saturn

Saturn is one of the most interesting planets in the solar system. It is the sixth planet in the solar system, and is most famous for its stunning array of rings. It is a very easy planet to pick out in the sky because it is one of the brightest lights in the shy. It also has a very faint greenish color that makes it stand out from the rest of the objects in the sky (“Astronomy for Kids”). Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter being the only planet that is bigger. It also has at least eighteen moons, more than any other planet in the solar system. There have been three voyages to this extraordinary planet, and one is still in process today. The Pioneer II traveled to Saturn in September of 1979, the Voyager missions took place in the 1980’s and the Cassini probe began it’s voyage in October of 1997 (Kuhn 280-282). There are many aspects of Saturn that make it one of the most extraordinary planets in this solar system.

Galileo Galilei was the first to view Saturn’s system of rings in the year 1610. Because he happened to be viewing their edge, he failed to recognize them as rings. In fact, he mistakenly interpreted the rings to be two moons similar to those he had discovered near the planet Jupiter. In 1655, a Dutch astronomer named Christiaan Huygens was able to discern what Galileo had thought to be moons as rings. Huygens benefited from a much improved telescope than that used by Galileo. A second moon of Saturn called Iapetus was found by the Italian astronomer Cassini in 1671. He also discovered, in 1675, that Saturn had more than one ring, i.e. a concentric pair of rings. A third ring was discovered by Johann Franz Encke in 1837 using a telescope at the Berlin observatory. Until Pioneer II approached Saturn in September of 1979, the planet was thought to have but three rings (Yenne 125).

Saturn is the sixth planet in the solar system, located between Jupiter and Uranus. Its average distance from the Sun is over 850 million miles, compared to Earth’s which is 93 million miles. Saturn’s orbit, the path it follows around the Sun, is nearly a circle. The closest the planet has come to the Sun is around 840 million miles, while the furthest away it gets is 930 million miles. Since Saturn is so far away from the Sun, it takes a very long time for it to complete its orbit of the Sun. Sa...

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... and its moons in August 1981. The Cassini probe is exploring many of Saturn’s characteristics from its icy rings to the magnetic field, which is a very ambitious mission. The mission also entails the first decent of a probe to a moon of another planet - the most distant landing ever attempted on another object in the solar system (“Great Space Place”). These discoveries and close-ups of the exquisite characteristics of Saturn are what make this planet the most interesting and amazing of the solar system.

Bibliography

“Astronomy for Kids-Saturn,” Altavista, http://www.dustbunny.com/afk/planets/saturn.htm, November 20, 1998.

“Astronomy Now: Cassini - Mission to Saturn,” Altavista, http://www.astronomynow.

com/cassini/ November 10, 1998,

“Great Space Place,” Altavista, http://www.transatlantech.com/TPS/gsp-starssaturn.html

November 15, 1998.

Kuhn, Karl F., “In Quest of the Universe,” Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc. Copyright

1998.

Pioneer 10, 11 Quicklook,” Altavista, http://leonardo.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/QuickLooks/

pioneer10QL.html, November 10, 1998.

Yenne, Bill, “The Atlas of the Solar System,” Brompton Books Corp., Greenwich, 1987,

125-128.

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