The ancient cultures like the Romans were the first to discover and name the planet Saturn but Galileo was the first to discover the rings in 1610 using his newly invented telescope. Bostiling a elegant ring system Saturn the sixth planet away from our sun at a distance of 1.4 billion kilometers. Saturn is second largest planet in the solar system and here on Earth is visible at night with the naked eye. Saturn has an overall hazy yellow-brown appearance from earth view but with a telescope people can see layers of cloud with little red, brown, and white spots.
Saturn is a gas-giant planet and has no solid surface but has a solid core and a thick layer of liquid. Saturn is mostly made of hydrogen and an outer layer of gas making it the least
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dense planet in the solar system. Water has a greater density that saturn so if you found a water source big enough for saturn the planet would float. The atmosphere of saturn is mostly made up of 80% molecular hydrogen, 18% helium and 2% of the molecules that are unknown. The atmosphere temperature is at a ultra cold of -178 °C and on the surface the temperatures are also a cold −133 to −123 °C. Saturn orbits in an elliptical orbit and It takes twenty nine earth years of saturn to complete one orbit around the sun. A day on saturn is 10.7 hours for a complete rotation. The axis is tilted at 26.7° making the seasons on Saturn last for seven years. Saturn is 95 times as massive as Earth but occupies a volume 766 times greater given its size it is less massive than earth. Saturn’s equatorial diameter is 120,536 km. On earth we can see Saturn's rings for 15 years starting for the north side and then for the next 15 years on the southern side but when earth crosses the ring plane the rings are invisible. Frozen comets and asteroids that didn’t make it to the planet's surface mix into seven ring groups of Saturn. Saturns rings are the largest and most complex rings in the solar system. The rings are about one kilometer thick and have a span of 282,000 km. Saturns seven ring groups are made of thousands of smaller rings and the seven groups are divided by gap named divisions. The main rings are named alphabetically stating for d and going to e. The rings themselves are mostly close to another, but the cassini division separates the b and a rings by a division of 47000 km making it the largest division. There are four moons inside the rings starting for the f ring with prometheus and pandora to next to the encke division to finally the a ring with atlas. These moons control the position of the debris and sharpen the rings by their gravitational pull. In the future when these moons collision with Saturn the rings will disappear. Saturn has 53 moons that are are known and nine awaiting confirmation for the scientific community.
Saturn cannot support life but some of the moons might support humans and some can provided valuable information about our planet and solar systems past. Most moons are ice chucks less than 10 km in diameter but some moons like Titan and Tethys. Titan the largest moon of Saturn and the second largest in the solar system is the only moon that humans know about that has an atmosphere and clouds made of most nitrogen. The diameter of Titan is 5,150 km just under by 120 km to the largest moon humans know called Ganymede. The surface of Titan is composed of mostly hydrocarbons, ice and maybe methane and ammonia ice. There were ice volcanoes discovered on the surface from Huygens. There are lake and possibly rain and wind in a form of liquid methane and lots of dunes made of sand. Titan can give us a glimpse of what our planet looked like before evolution. Tethys is the same density of water and has a diameter of 1066. The moon rotates in a circular orbit of 294,660 km away from Saturn and is primarily pure water ice. There are two primary features of Tethys one being the Ithaca Chasma and the crater Odysseus. The Ithaca Chasma was created early in the life of the moon when the water expanded creating the chasm that makes up three quarter of the surface. The Odysseus crater is one of many crater impacts on the surface and this one measure 400 km across and contains a central
peak. Cassini goal was to study the planet by looking at its atmosphere and rings. It also cared huygens to titan. Among the discovery Cassini found geysers on one of saturn's moons called Enceladus. Cassini also found that the largest moon Titan could give us a picture of how earth was like before life evolved. Huygens touched down on Titan and studied the smog like atmosphere of titan in detail and also took images of the muddy surface. Voyager one and two explored the planet and the rings in greater detail before heading for the edge of our solar system. The voyager one found three new moons called Prometheus and two moons pandora and atlas with keep the ring separated. Voyager two showed us a detailed photo of Saturn's rings and made sure that the information voyager one discovered was accurate. Pioneer 11 was the first mission to saturn to study the atmosphere of Saturn. Pioneer 11 recorded the temperatures of saturn at a -180°C and found that Saturn is primarily liquid hydrogen.
Neptune was discovered through a discrepancy in Uranus’s orbit. Uranus’s orbit was not moving how astronomers predicted it would. They could not find an elliptical orbit that fit Uranus’s trajectory. They therefore assumed that there had to be another planet that’s gravitational pull was effecting Uranus. Johann Galle was the first to find Neptune in 1846, even though many before him had mathematically predicted where this new planet would be. The planet was named Neptune and two astronomers who had predicted mathematically where it would be are credited with finding it not Galle.
On the other hand, Pluto is larger than the other 40 known moons in the solar system. There is no scientific reason to arbitrarily distinguish between planets and asteroids based on the sizes of the moons that happen to be present in a planetary system.... ... middle of paper ... ... 78, No. 1, pp. 113-117.
A English astronomer named William Herschel, had been using his 40-foot reflector telescope when he had made the discovery of Mimas on September 17, 1789. The name Mimas comes from the god (or Titan) Mimas in Greek mythology who was slain by one of the gods of Olympus in the war between the Olympians and the Titans. His son, John Herschel, suggested that the moons of Saturn be associated with Greek mythical brothers and sisters of Kronus, known to the Romans as Saturn. This tradition had begun with the publication of John Herschel's 1847 book.
Jupiter’s moons may support life, and an extremophile called Spinoloricus Cinziae can survive no oxygen. It is also possible that Jupiter’s moon Io could support an extremophile that we do not know. Hyperthermophiles possibly could live on Venus. It also might be possible that life could exist in the clouds. Europa can support life. Psychrophiles could survive on Europa because they can withstand temperatures down to -15 degrees Celsius. Saturn can not support life, but its moons might. Enceladus has oceans. It is possible to sustain Thermococcus microbe. Bacteria have been found on Mars. Psychrophiles may not be able to survive on Eris because of its freezing temperatures, although it might be able to withstand it because of its atmosphere.
Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus in 1781. It was the first planet to be discovered in more modern times with the help of telescopes, and when Herschel first discovered it, he thought it was a comet. The orbit of the planet, however, was different from what scientists thought the orbit should be, so they figured that the reason for that was another object near the planet. They turned out to be right, and the planet Neptune was discovered in 1846. Herschel found Uranus because he was looking for double stars, and just so happened to come across the planet. He originally called the planet Georgium Sidus after King George III, but later scientists changed the name to
The history of the planet's discovery is the first we have of its kind; Uranus was the first planet to be discovered with a telescope. The circumstances surrounding the discovery of the object are befitting of the odd planet. The earliest recorded sighting of Uranus was in 1690 by John Flamsteed, but the object was catalogued as another star. On March 13, 1781 Uranus was sighted again by amateur astronomer William Herschel and thought to be a comet or nebulous star. In 1784, Jean-Dominique Cassini, director of the Paris Observatory and prominent professional astronomer, made the following comment:
Right alongside the fifth and largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, orbits a moon only about the same size as Earth’s moon. On this moon, is an icy surface that scientists are trying to uncover. Due to the presence of what they believe to be water, there is the possibility of life on this moon named Europa.
Saturn's sales are down, and market share needs to be increased. Also, the product line is too narrow. Current advertising is targeting the younger population, but the average age of a Saturn buyer is 43. Saturn's initial focus on employee relationships seems to be fading as demonstrated with the clash between GM designers in Europe and the U.S. on the L-Series car. In addition, overall styling of the vehicles needs to be addressed.
Most people say Pluto is not a planet but merely a dwarf planet. They are not wrong because Pluto does not have all of the characteristic of what makes a planet a planet. To qualify as a planet Pluto would have to orbit around the sun, be round, and clear out its orbit. It is only missing one characteristic, it cannot clear out its orbit. The definition of a dwarf planet is a celestial body resembling a small planet but lacking certain technical criteria that are required for it to be classed as such. Dwarf planets may be too small to be planets but are too large to be placed in smaller categorizes. Pluto is very cold, much colder than Antarctica and it has way less gravity than Earth. There are more dwarf planets than Pluto. Pluto is the first
Core/Interior: The Earth has three layers to it's interior, the inner core, outer core, and mantle. Of these the outer core is thought to be liquid. Like most of the terrestrial planets at birth, the Earth has been molten and undergone some differentiation allowing the heavy material which is consisting mostly of an iron, nickel, and cobalt core making it's density five and a half times the density of water.
Saturn has a total of seven rings, four main rings and three that are less visible. These rings are made up of thousands of smaller rings. Each ring varies in thickness ranging from one meter to one kilometer, consisting of ninety-nine percent ice and small amounts of other particles, mainly dust and other debris, some of the particles are mountainous sized boulders. These rings are most likely remnants from a large collision from a past moon. Each ring orbits Saturn at different rate with the further reaches taking longer to complete its orbit. The rings begin at approximately sixty-six thousand km’s from the center of Saturn to than thirteen million kilometers. The rings of Saturn contain gaps where very little material is found. These gaps
There are many similarities and differences between Saturn and Mars.We can use a difference to start with. The gravitational force on both planets is very different. To compare the forces, I will use the gravitational force on Earth as the example, since both of the factors are compared to Earth. Mars has a gravitational force that is .38 of Earth’s so If you were 100 pounds on Earth you would be 38 pounds on Mars, but on Saturn you would be 106.4 because it is 1.064… times Earth’s gravitational force, the difference lies in the numbers since the difference is very large. Another example of a difference between the two planets is the geological features. Though Saturn does have mountains, they are found in the inner core while Mars possesses
Although, NASA.gov states that “it is still unknown whether the surface of the planet is rocky, gaseous, or liquid” (Nasa.gov). About
Our knowledge gained of Titan has drastically improved since the early 1980s when Voyager flew past it. Titan is Saturn’s largest moon and the second largest moon of our solar system. It has a diameter estimated roughly 40% of Earth’s moon (Titan’s Radius: 2576, Moon’s Radius: 1737) and is 80% more massive (Titan’s Mass: 1.35 x 10^23 kg, Moon’s Mass: 7.35 x 10^22 kg. Titan has a atmospheric surface pressure 50% more than of Earth’s. In addition to that, Titan is the only moon to have a dense atmosphere. Titan’s atmosphere has been calculated to be 4.5 times more dense than of Earth’s atmosphere, which can been clearly noted by the layers of haze seen. The atmosphere in Titan is approximately 1.5km and is mainly composed of nitrogen. Titan has a very similar vertical atmospheric structure to earth, Titan has a troposphere temperature of ~94-~70K, a tropopause temperature of 70.4K and a stratosphere temperature of ~70-175K.
The fourth planet from the sun is Mars. “Mars is named after a mythological figure-the Roman God of War. Due to Mars color it is also known as the red planet. Mercury is the tiniest planet then Mars. Scientist have found that mars has the largest mountain compared to the other planets. Furthermore, this mountain is named Olympus Mons, it is a shield volcano, it is 21 km high and 600 km in diameter. Scientist have discovered recent lava on the planet, therefore the volcano may still be active.