My Favorite Planet

Thealy Dominique L. Silva

March 7, 2012

SATURN
Adorned with thousands of beautiful ringlets, Saturn is unique among the planets. All four gas giant planets have rings -- made of chunks of ice and rock -- but none are as spectacular or as complicated as Saturn's. Like the other gas giants, Saturn is mostly a massive ball of hydrogen and helium.
Saturn was the most distant of the five planets known to the ancients. In 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was the first to gaze at Saturn through a telescope. To his surprise, he saw a pair of objects on either side of the planet. He sketched them as separate spheres, thinking that Saturn was triple-bodied. Continuing his observations over the next few years, Galileo drew the lateral bodies as arms or handles attached to Saturn. In 1659, Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, using a more powerful telescope than Galileo's, proposed that Saturn was surrounded by a thin, flat ring. In 1675, Italian-born astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini discovered a division between what are now called the A and B rings.

Saturn in Ultraviolet Light

INTRODUCTION
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and is the second largest in the solar system with an equatorial diameter of 119,300 kilometers (74,130 miles). Much of what is known about the planet is due to the Voyager explorations in 1980-81. Saturn is visibly flattened at the poles, a result of the very fast rotation of the planet on its axis. Its day is 10 hours, 39 minutes long, and it takes 29.5 Earth years to revolve about the Sun. The atmosphere is primarily composed of hydrogen with small amounts of helium and methane. Saturn is the only planet less dense than water (about 30 percent less). In the unlikely event that a large enough ocean could be found, Saturn would float in it. Saturn's hazy yellow hue is marked by broad atmospheric banding similar to, but fainter than, that found on Jupiter.

RING SYSTEM

Saturn's ring system makes the planet one of the most beautiful objects in the solar system. The rings are split into a number of different parts, which include the bright A and B rings and a fainter C ring. The ring system has various gaps. The most notable gap is the Cassini [kahSEE-nee] Division, which separates the A and B rings. Giovanni Cassini discovered this division in 1675. The Encke [EN-kee] Division, which splits the A Ring, is named after Johann Encke, who discovered it in 1837. Space probes have shown that the main rings are really made up of a large number of narrow ringlets. The origin of the rings is obscure. It is thought that the rings may have been formed from larger moons that were shattered by impacts of comets and meteoroids. The ring composition is not known for certain, but the rings do show a significant amount of water. They may be composed of icebergs and/or snowballs from a few centimeters to a few meters in size. Much of the elaborate structure of some of the rings is due to the gravitational effects of nearby satellites. This phenomenon is demonstrated by the relationship between the F-ring and two small moons that shepherd the ring material.

This highly enhanced color view was assembled from clear, orange and ultraviolet frames obtained 17 The rings of Saturn have puzzled astronomers since Galileo Galilei August 1981 discovered them with his telescope in 1610. Detailed study by the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft in the 1980s only from a increased the mystery. distance of There are billions of ring particles in the entire ring system. The ring particle sizes range from tiny, dust-sized 8.9 million icy grains to a few particles as large as mountains. km (5.5 Two tiny moons orbit in gaps (Encke and Keeler gaps) in the rings and keep the gaps open. million Other particles (10s to 100s of meters) are too tiny to see, but create miles). propeller-shaped objects in the rings that let us know they are there.
The rings are believed to be pieces of comets, asteroids or shattered moons that broke up before they reached the planet. Each ring orbits at a different speed around the planet. Information from NASA's Cassini mission will help reveal how they formed, how they maintain their orbit and, above all, why they are there in the first place. While the other three gas planets in the solar system -- Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune -- have rings orbiting around them, Saturn's are by far the largest and most spectacular. With a thickness of about one kilometer (3,200 feet) or less, they span up to 282,000 km (175,000 miles), about three quarters of the distance between the Earth and its Moon. Named alphabetically in the order they were discovered, the rings are relatively close to each other, with the exception of the Cassini Division, a gap measuring 4,700 km (2,920 miles). The main rings are, working outward from the planet, known as C, B and A. The Cassini Division is the largest gap in the rings and separates Rings B and A.

 In addition a number of fainter rings have been discovered more recently. The D Ring is exceedingly faint and closest to the planet. The F Ring is a narrow feature just outside the A Ring. Beyond that are two far fainter rings named G and E. The rings show a tremendous amount of structure on all scales; some of this structure is related to gravitational perturbations by Saturn's many moons, but much of it remains unexplained. However, the spectacular crossing into Saturn's orbit brought incredible information, images and footage. The instruments onboard Cassini are still collecting unique data that may answer many questions about the rings' composition.
Reference: USGS Astrogeology: Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature -- Ring Nomenclature

THE MOONS OF SATURN

Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun, is home to a vast array of intriguing and unique worlds. From the cloud-shrouded surface of Titan to crater-riddled Phoebe, each of Saturn's moons tells another piece of the story surrounding the Saturn system. Christiaan Huygens discovered the first known moon of Saturn. The year was 1655 and the moon was Titan. Giovanni Domenico Cassini made the next four discoveries: Iapetus (1671), Rhea (1672), Dione (1684), and Tethys (1684). Mimas and Enceladus were both discovered by William Herschel in 1789. The next two discoveries came at intervals of 50 or more years -- Hyperion (1848) and Phoebe (1898). As telescopic resolving power increased through the 19th century, Saturn's family of known moons grew. In 1966 Epimetheus and Janus were discovered. By the time Cassini-Huygens was launched in 1997, Saturn's moon count had reached 18. The number of known moons soon increased with high-resolution imaging techniques used on ground-based telescopes. The Cassini mission has discovered several more moons since its arrival at Saturn. NASA discovered a total of 53 natural satellites orbiting Saturn. Each of Saturn's moons bears a unique story. Two of the moons orbit within gaps in the main rings. Some, such as Prometheus and Pandora, interact with ring material, shepherding the ring in its orbit. Some small moons are trapped in the same orbits as Tethys or Dione. Janus and Epimetheus occasionally pass close to each other, causing them to periodically exchange orbits. Here's a sampling of some of the unique aspects of the moons:
Titan is so large that it affects the orbits of other near-by moons. At 5,150 km (3,200 miles) across, it is the second largest moon in the solar system.

Iapetus has one side as bright as snow and one side as dark as black velvet, with a huge ridge running around most of its dark-side equator. - Phoebe orbits the planet in a direction opposite that of Saturn's larger moons, as do several of the more recently discovered moons. - Mimas has an enormous crater on one side, the result of an impact that nearly split the moon apart. - Enceladus displays evidence of active ice volcanism: Cassini observed warm fractures where evaporating ice evidently escapes and forms a huge cloud of water vapor over the South Pole. - Hyperion has an odd flattened shape and rotates chaotically, probably due to a recent collision. - Pan orbits within the main rings and helps sweep materials out of a narrow space known as the Encke Gap. - Tethys has a huge rift zone called Ithaca Chasma that runs nearly three-quarters of the way around the moon. - Four moons orbit in stable places around Saturn called Lagrangian points. These places lie 60 degrees ahead of or behind a larger moon and in the same orbit. Telesto and Calypso occupy the two Lagrangian points of Tethys in its orbit; Helene and Polydeuces occupy the corresponding Lagrangian points of Dione. - Sixteen of Saturn's moons keep the same face toward the planet as they orbit. Called "tidal locking," this is the same phenomenon that keeps our Moon always facing toward Earth. References: USGS Astrogeology: Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature Planetary Body Names and Discoverers Solar System Dynamics -- Planetary Satellite Discovery Circumstances

Saturn and two of its moons, Tethys (above) and Dione

Quintet of Moons Date: 29 Jul 2011

A quintet of Saturn's moons come together in the Cassini spacecraft's field of view for this portrait.

Moon Quartet Date: 27 Jul 2010

A quartet of Saturn's moons are shown with a sliver of the rings in this Cassini spacecraft view.

Saturn Ring-Plane Crossing Date: 22 May 1995 This image from the Hubble telescope documents a rare astronomical alignment: Saturn's magnificent ring system turned edge-on. This event occurs when the Earth passes through Saturn's ring plane, as it does about every 15 years.

Saturn Statistics Mass (kg) Mass (Earth = 1) Equatorial radius (km) Equatorial radius (Earth = 1) Mean density (gm/cm^3) Mean distance from the Sun (km) Mean distance from the Sun (Earth = 1) Rotational period (hours) Orbital period (years) Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) Orbital eccentricity 5.688e+26 9.5181e+01 60,268 9.4494e+00 0.69 1,429,400,000 9.5388 10.233 29.458 9.67 0.0560

Tilt of axis (degrees) Orbital inclination (degrees) Equatorial surface gravity (m/sec^2) Equatorial escape velocity (km/sec) Visual geometric albedo Magnitude (Vo) Mean cloud temperature Atmospheric pressure (bars) Atmospheric composition Hydrogen Helium

25.33 2.488 9.05 35.49 0.47 0.67 -125C 1.4 97% 3%

Enchanting Saturn Date: 15 Sep 2006

With giant Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering Cassini from the sun's blinding glare, the spacecraft viewed the rings as never before, revealing previously unknown faint rings and even glimpsing its home world

FACTS AND FIGURES

Discovered By Date of Discovery Orbit Size Around Saturn (semi-major axis) Known by the Ancients Unknown Metric: 1,426,666,422 km English: 886,489,415 miles Scientific Notation: 1.4266664 x 109 km (9.53667594 A.U.) By Comparison: 9.537 x Earth Perihelion (closest) Metric: 1,349,823,615 km English: 838,741,509 miles Scientific Notation: 1.34982 x 109 km (9.023 A.U.) By Comparison: 9.176 x Earth Aphelion (farthest) Metric: 1,503,509,229 km English: 934,237,322 miles Scientific Notation: 1.50351 x 109 km (1.005 x 101 A.U.) By Comparison: 9.885 x Earth Mean Radius Metric: 58,232 km English: 36,183.7 miles Scientific Notation: 5.8232 x 104 km By Comparison: 9.1402 x Earth Mean Circumference Metric: 365,882.4 km English: 227,348.8 miles Scientific Notation: 3.65882 x 105 km By Comparison: 9.1402 x Earth Volume Metric: 827,129,915,150,897 km3 English: 198,439,019,647,006 mi3 Scientific Notation: 8.2713 x 1014 km3 By Comparison: 763.594 x Earth Mass Metric: 568,319,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg Scientific Notation: 5.6832 x 1026 kg By Comparison: 95.161 x Earth Density Metric: 0.687 g/cm3 By Comparison: 0.125 x Earth Surface Area Metric: 42,612,133,285 km2 English: 16,452,636,641 square miles Scientific Notation: 4.2612 x 1010 km2 By Comparison: 83.543 x Earth Surface Gravity Metric: 10.4* m/s2 English: 34.3 ft/s2 By Comparison: If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh about 107 pounds on Saturn (at the equator). *Derived from a 1 bar radius of 60,268 km.

Escape Velocity

Metric: 129,924 km/h English: 80,731 mph Scientific Notation: 3.609 x 104 m/s By Comparison: Escape velocity of Earth is 25,030 mph.

Sidereal Rotation Period (Length of Day) Sidereal Orbit Period (Length of Year)

0.444 Earth days 10.656 hours By Comparison: 0.445 x Earth 29.447498 Earth years 10,755.70 Earth days By Comparison: 29.447 x Earth

Average Orbit Velocity

Metric: 34,701 km/h English: 21,562 mph Scientific Notation: 9.6391 x 104 m/s By Comparison: 0.324 x Earth

Orbit Eccentricity

0.05386179 By Comparison: 3.223 x Earth

Orbit Inclination Equatorial Inclination to Orbit Orbit Circumference

2.49 degrees 26.7 degrees Metric: 8,957,504,604 km English: 5,565,935,315 miles Scientific Notation: 8.958 x 109 km By Comparison: 9.530 x Earth

Effective Temperature

Metric: -178 C English: -288 F Scientific Notation: 95 K

Atmospheric Constituents

Hydrogen, Helium Scientific Notation: H2, He By Comparison: Earth's atmosphere consists mostly of N2 and O2.

Additional Information:
Namesake: Roman god of agriculture.

References
Thomas, P., J. Veverka, D. Morrison, M. Davies. and T. V. Johnson. "Saturn's Small Satellites: Voyager Imaging Results." Journal of Geophysical Research, November 1, 1983, 8743-8754. Soderblom, Laurence A. and Torrence V. Johnson. "The Moons of Saturn." Scientific American, January 1982. http://www.solarviews.com/eng/saturn.htm http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Saturn