Why does Saturn have rings?
In this essay I will answer my question of ‘why does Saturn have rings’. I will also describe saturn and its attributes. Towards the end of the essay I will speak about what Saturn having rings will mean to us in the near future.
Physical Characteristics:
Saturn is the sixth planet in the galaxy but is not in fact the only planet with rings. Saturn is also the second largest planet after jupiter. It is also known as a gas giant due to the fact that it is predominately made up of hydrogen and helium which are numbers 1 and 2 on the periodic table. It is also the only planet in the solar system that is less dense than water. Saturn is so big that it and Jupiter make up 92% of the planetary mass in our solar system according to Jonathan J.Nettelmann who wrote Space Science Reviews on May 10 2010 so it is pretty recent.
Atmosphere:
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Saturn has a very dense atmosphere. Trace amounts of ammonia, acetylene, ethane, propane, phosphine and methane have been detected in Saturn's atmosphere according to Fraser Cain who wrote the book called ‘atmosphere of saturn’ on 22 January 2009. In Saturn's atmosphere there are 2 layers of clouds, the upper cloud layer is made of ammonia crystals. Ammonia is a colourless gas that smells horrific . Ammonia contributes a lot to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving food and fertilizers. If humans breath in ammonia it pulls the oxygen out of our lungs and eats away at our insides. The lower level of cloud is composed of ammonium hydrosulfide and/or water. Winds on Saturn are very strong, in fact they are the second strongest winds in the solar system. There are other noticeable cloud patterns on Saturn such as the North Vortex hexagonal cloud pattern. The hexagonal cloud pattern is a pattern on top of saturn, it is so big the diameter is wider than earth. How this cloud came to be is a matter of much speculation, many scientists have tried to replicate this cloud but have failed. The origins of this cloud are still unknown . Orbit and rotation: The distance between the sun and Saturn is very large nearly 1.5 billion kilometers. Saturn has an average orbital speed of 9.6 kph according to David R. Williams who wrote ‘saturn fact sheet’ for the government organization, NASA. Saturn’s spin is so slow that it takes nearly 30 earth years for Saturn to spin right around the sun. Saturn is tilted 2.43 degrees relative to earth. Nasa has sent 3 probes to Saturn Cassini, voyager and pioneer, the most well known one being Cassini. Cassini brought back valuable information such as that the radio rotation period of Saturn had increased appreciably. Moons: Saturn has a very high gravitational pull which means it pulls in moons.
Saturn has a total of 62 moons, 53 moons have names and only 13 have a diameter of 50 kms or less. Most of the moons are named after Titans and/or titanesses, some are also named after mythological characters. 24 of Saturn’s moons are regular satellites which means they have prograde orbits not greatly inclined to Saturn's equatorial plane. The remaining 38 are irregular satellites which means their orbits are much farther from Saturn.
Why does Saturn have rings:
Many scientists have theories on why Saturn has rings, but nobody knows for sure. Because of this it makes it a very heated topic today. This is the simplest answer that I have found. The planet is has a great deal of dust, particles, and ice at varying distances from its surface. These items are most likely trapped by gravity. The rings appear because of the wavelengths of light reflected by these rings of debris. Although there are many theories behind why Saturn has rings, I believe that this theory is the one that makes the most sense to me.
What does this mean for
us?: With Saturn’s rings being so prominent it has left many scientists bewildered on the science behind them. I believe that because nobody truly knows why there are rings, it will help us discover more information on Saturn and other planets. Imagine if we sent a probe to gather materials from the rings and bring them back here. We would have information about the planet without even having to risk people going onto the planet. I think because we don’t have a lot of information about Saturn it will leave it for a young astronomers to make big discoveries about Saturn and it’s rings. Relating back to my paragraph on the Atmosphere, I believe that is valuable information for landing on that planet, it means we know not breath the air or the Ammonia in the cloud layers when we first land there.
Tolkien, Oxford's Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, was an avid fan of history; the ancient past of his beloved Europe fascinated him to such a degree that it is little wonder the history of Middle-Earth mirrors our own. Sméagol's lust for, reverence to, and even fear of the One Ring bases its roots, most especially, in the ancient practice of Dactyliomancy, or the use of rings for divination and magic. In the first century AD, Apollonius of Tyana, a major figure in the Gnostic religion and early alchemy, received seven rings from the Brahman Indian prince Iarchus, which he believed gave him healing powers if he would "[revere] them as divine... and...
Music derived from astrology is surprisingly rare. The ancient Greek philosophers, whatever their intellectual attitudes towards astrology may have been, were certainly not ignorant of astrological teachings and ideas. It was they, after all who put forward the idea of the "Music of the Spheres", the idea that these vast objects twirling around and whirling through space, must have hummed a tone as they went along their courses, much as a ball spun on a string will whistle. They knew of seven planets: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Not surprisingly, western music evolved with seven-tone scales. Music and astrology come together again in this suite devoted to the seven planets, though Uranus and Neptune have displaced the Sun and Moon. Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was apparently fascinated by various esoteric pursuits, such as astrology and Hindu philosophy, suggesting in particular a yearning to get to grips with matters of a spiritual nature. How far he got in this pursuit is unclear, but what is quite beyond doubt is the fact that The Planets is a deeply spiritual work, reaching a level of spirit expression that is rarely experienced in other works. Even without this added strength, the whole work is a sonic spectacle and has so many wonderfully exotic harmonies. Coloration, dramatic contrast and inventiveness make this the work of a genius. It was first performed in the autumn of 1918.
As I have described in The Lost Worlds of 2001, both projects proceeded simultaneously, with feedback in each direction. Thus I often had the strange experience of revising the manuscript after viewing rushes based upon an earlier version of the story - a stimulating but rather expensive way of writing a novel. As a result, there is a much closer parallel between book and movie than is usually the case, but there is also major differences. In the novel, the destination of the spaceship Discovery was Iapetus (or Japetus), most enigmatic of Saturn's many moons. The Saturnian system was reached via Jupiter: Discovery made a close approach to the giant planet, using its enormous gravitational field to produce a "slingshot" effect and to accelerate it along the second lap of its journey. Exactly the same maneuver was used by the Voyager space-probes in 1979, when they made the first detailed reconnaissance of the outer
To date Uranus has been found to have 21 satellites four of which have yet to be named and 11 rings.
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.
2,870,990,000 km (19.218 AU) from the Sun, Uranus hangs on the wall of space as a mysterious blue green planet. With a mass of 8.683e25 kg and a diameter of 51,118 km at the equator, Uranus is the third largest planet in our solar system. It has been described as a planet that was slugged a few billion years ago by a large onrushing object, knocked down (never to get up), and now proceeds to roll around an 84-year orbit on its belly. As the strangest of the Jovian planets, the description is accurate. Uranus has a 17 hour and 14 minute day and takes 84 years to make its way about the sun with an axis tilted at around 90° with retrograde rotation. Stranger still is the fact that Uranus' axis is almost parallel to the ecliptic, hence the expression "on its belly".
Thomas Beckett returns the chancellor’s ring and that marks the official decision made with. God’s influence on the world. The rings significance held Beckets mind and duty. From the beginning of the film. The rings might have foreshadowed Thomas Beckets's growth directing his fearless resolution.
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.
It is also possible that Uranus and Neptune’s core is a liquid instead of a solid. The Jovian planets also have about the same rotational characteristics and all have rings around them. Jupiter, the first of the jovian planets, reigns supreme throughout the solar system. Named after the Roman god Jove, the ruler of Olympus, Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and is also the largest planet in the Earth’s solar system. It is 318 times more massive than Earth and is two thirds of the planetary mass in the solar system.
So far we don't know that either but I know it most likely has rings because all of the Planets on the other side of the Asteroid belt has rings Or so people call them the big planet or gas
The gas giants are a collection of planets in our solar system. As can be told from their name, they are mostly composed of differing mixtures of gases and ices. The gas and ice composition in question varies among the different planets. This mix of gases gives much of the planets an extremely thick atmosphere. At the very center of a gas giant is a core of liquid heavy metals. The gas giants are also called Jovian planets, taken from the largest planet in our solar system: Jupiter. Due to the fact the the majority of a gas giant planet is gas, the planet isn’t very dense and therefore, very large as a result. In fact, all of the gas giants are vastly larger than all of the terrestrial planets. Another common factor of the gas giants are their large amount of moons. The terrestrial planet, Mars, has the largest amount of moons, 2. The amount of moons of Mars is dwarfed in comparison to Saturn’s and Jupiter’s moo...
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and by far the largest mass object in the solar system of all the other planets. Jupiter is twice the size of all the other planets combined. It is as 318 times the sizes of earth. The distance that Jupiter orbits the sun is 778,330,000 km (Gallant pp154). The diameter is 142,984 km and the mass that it has is 1.900e27 kg. Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the sky after the Sun, the Moon and Venus. Mars is some times brighter. Galileo discovered Jupiter in 1610(Gallant); another interesting fact is that Jupiter has 4 large moons. Which are known as the Galilean moons. They were named Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. The first mission that went to Jupiter was Pioneer 10 in 1973 and later by Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2(Gallant). There is currently a spacecraft named Galileo that is currently in orbit around Jupiter and is sending data for the next two years. In Dec 7, 1995, Galileo probe entered the atmosphere at a rate of 106,000 mph and survived. Also in the upcoming years a probe will go around the moon Europa. We will be able to see if there is actually an ocean in that moon (National Geographic Jan 2000). Many scientist did not believe that it would make do to the gravity force which is 228 times that of Earth. Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus are known as the gas planet they do not have a solid surface. Jupiter is made up of 90% hydrogen and 10% helium(Gallant). This is very close to the composition of the primor...
One of the most beautiful, eye catching sights in our solar system has got to be saturn. It is the jewel of our solar system. This magnificent planet is Greek for The God of Agriculture. We chose this planet as our first choice because we were attracted to it’s uniqueness. Not only were we interested in its beautiful rings, we were also interested in its magnificent colors. Saturn is one of the most intriguing phenomenons known in the Milky Way.
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.
Even though the planet itself was discovered in 1781, the rings of Uranus weren’t discovered until 1977 by the astronomical team of James L. Elliot, Edward W. Dunham, and Douglas J. Mink. Uranus has thirteen distinct rings that start around 38,000 kilometers from the center of the planet to almost 98,000 kilometers. Uranus’s rings are relatively dark and are made up of larger chunks that would really qualify as boulders and not dust. The rings are particularly tiny as each ring is only a few kilometers thick. Unlike Saturn’s rings, Uranus’s rings have proven to be surprisingly stable (Moscato). Each of the rings are unique in their own way; one even appears to “breathe” as it expands and contracts around five kilometers every few hours (Moscato). Uranus’s rings are also thought to be no more than 600 million years old, which is very young in planetary terms. Some theories suggest that the rings were formed from a few shepherded moons that were shattered by Uranus’s gravity and turned into rings after the chunks collided and turned into small particles