Saturn

                              Saturn

Saturn is the second largest planet in the Solar System and the sixth planet from the Sun. It is nine times larger than the Earth with a diameter of about 1,20,500 kilometres. Saturn was named after the Roman God of agriculture who was the father of Jupiter. This gas giant consists of a rocky core and ice encircled by an inner mantle of liquid metallic hydrogen. The outer mantle contains metallic hydrogen that spreads into the atmosphere of gases. Saturn has a system of brightly coloured rings and this planet appears as the most beautiful one in the Solar System. The rings are thought to be made up of bulks of tiny bits of rock and dust surrounding the planet. Saturn completes one rotation in 10 hours and 39 minutes, and it takes 29½ years to revolve round the Sun. 18 satellites of Saturn have been confirmed. Among them Titan is the largest one with a diameter of 5,140 kilometres, and is the only satellite known to have clouds and atmosphere. Some other satellites of Saturn are Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Mimas. Saturn has the least density among planets in the Solar System.

                   Rings of Saturn

Saturn has seven rings which surround it at its equator without touching the planet. Each ring is a mass of billions of orbiting pieces of ice and rock. It consists of tiny grains of dust to wide chunks of ice of about 10 metres. The A, B, C and F rings are brighter while the D, G, and E rings are very faint. The gravitational pull of the planet and its satellites help the rings to be held together in orbit.

                Spaceship to Saturn

Pioneer-Saturn was the spaceship launched by the US in 1973. In 1979 it reached about 21,000 kilometres near Saturn and detected that the planet has stronger magnetic field than the Earth. In 1977 Voyager-I and Voyager-2 of the US confirmed the presence of seven rings surrounding Saturn.

        Observation of Saturn's rings

Saturn's rings was discovered by Galileo in 1610. In 1655 the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens found out that the rings are flat and solid, and inclined to the planet's orbital plane. Years later Cassini discovered the gap between every ring. In 1789, French scientist Pierre Simon Laplace stated that the rings are formed of many small components. James Clerk Maxwell in 1857 confirmed that a large number of tiny particles together form the rings of Saturn.

                             Saturn

Distance from the sun in km.: 1429.4 million

Diameter at equator in km.: 120,536

Mass with respect to the earth: 95. 184 (earth=1) 

Gravity with respect to the earth: 1.07

Period of revolution: 29% earth years (approx.)

Period of rotation: 10 hours and 39 minutes

Density (g/cm³): 0.69 

Temperature: -178°C

Satellites: 33