Saturn

   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

 Diameter: 74,900 miles (120,500 km).

Mass: 95.2 Earth masses

Rotation period: 0.43 days.

Inclination of equator to orbit: 26.7 degrees.

Mean orbital speed: 6 Miles per second (9.6 km/s)

Mean distance from the sun: 890 million miles (1.4 billion km)

 

 

THE STRUCTURE OF SATURN

Saturn is very similar to composition to neighbouring Jupiter, about 96% hydrogen and 3% helium. The gaseous make up gives the two planets low densities compared to the terrestrial planets. However Saturn is much less than Jupiter, that of 0.7 times that of water. With regards to its structure a rocky core is embedded within an outer core of water, methane and ammonia. Above this is a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen, , some 13,000 miles deep...over which lies a stratum of molecular hydrogen.

Again I comparison to Jupiter this planet actually radiates more energy than it receives from the sun. The continuous release of interior heat is more than likely to be responsible for generating convection currents in the atmosphere, which in turn gives rise to Saturn's high altitude clouds. The equatorial jet winds at the cloud tops move faster than they do on Jupiter, around 1,100 feet per second, which amounts to two thirds the speed of sound in the atmosphere there. This planet orbits much further from the sun than Jupiter does, and therefore it is colder and experiences less weather, and thus displaying fewer cloud features. However telescopes have identified large bands of cloud, epitomized by the recording of an enormous storm in 1990 by the Hubble Space Telescope.

                                                    THE RINGS

                                                

Saturn's rings remained unique within the known solar system until 1977, when very faint rings were discovered around Uranus.

Even now we are still not sure why this planet has these rings, yet their mere presence and existence astounds us all. I have long since looked towards answering such a question myself, yet I too am left with the theories forwarded by others to rely on. For me the best explanation is that the rings are in actual fact the remains of a moon that strayed too close to the planet and was pulled apart by Saturn's gravity. However there is the possibility that a moon was smashed to pieces by a passing comet/asteroid too. Another theory suggest that the rings are made of particles that were unable to concentrate into a moon, again because of the gravitational influence of the planet. However we can only theorize as to the origins of the rings, and hope that some day some clue will provide us with an answer.

Saturn's rings are immense, and very thin. The measure approximately 170,000 miles in diameter, with a width of 39,000 miles. However the big surprise is that they are less than a mile and a half thick. whilst many illustrations, and indeed the view from earth, would suggest that they are a solid disk, in fact they consist of many smaller ringlets, each containing myriad icy fragments and boulder size rocks. However despite their appearance there is also a lot of empty space..if the rings were all packed together to form a single body it would be no more than about 60 miles (100 km) across. Thus far there have been three main rings recognized, which have been simply labeled A, B and C, with the latter one being the fainter of the three (also called the crepe ring). A gap called the 'Cassini Division' separates A and B, although this is a little misleading as this 'gap region' contains four narrow ringlets each measuring about 300 miles across. In the 1970s and 80s Voyager and Pioneer 11 images revealed a further four additional faint rings. The innermost D ring consists of a few dusty and widely spaced bands. The outermost E and G rings are, in essence, slight concentrations of orbital debris and are very faint. Pioneer 11 detected the unusual F ring lying 2,200 miles outside the A ring. This ring appears smooth in places but also has a set of knotted and braided strands, shapes that arise partly from the gravitational effects of the 'shepherd' satellites Pandora and Prometheus.

NAME

RADIUS INNER

RADIUS OUTER

WIDTH

D–Ring

67,000

74,500

7500

Guerin Division

 

 

 

C–Ring

74,500

92,000

17,500

Maxwell Division

87,500

88,000

500

B–ring

92,000

117,500

25,500

Cassini Division

115,500

120,600

4,800

Huygen's gap

117,680

 

285,440

A–Ring

122,200

136,800

14,600

Encke minima

126,430

129,940

3,500

Encke Division

133,410

133,740

 

Keeler Gap

136,510

136,550

 

F–Ring

140,210

 

30–500

G–Ring

165,800

173,800

8000

E–Ring

180,000

480,000

300,000

SATURN'S MOONS

Saturn has 34 named satellites, yet more and more are being discovered all of the time (According to NASA in 2006 there were 47 natural satellites). There are complex tidal resonance's between some of Saturn's moons and the ring system. Some of the moons, the so called 'shepherding satellites,' (Atlas, Prometheus) are very important in keeping the rings in place by herding Saturn's orbiting particles into distinct rings. Mimas seems to be responsible for the paucity of material in the Cassini division whilst Pan is located inside the Encke division.

SATELLITE

DISTANCE (KM)

RADIUS (KM)

MASS (KG)

Pan

134,000

10

Not known

Atlas

138,000

14

Not known

Prometheus

139,000

46

2.70e17

Pandora

142,000

46

2.20e17

Epimetheus

151,000

57

5.60e17

Janus

151,000

89

2.01e18

Mimas

186,000

196

3.80e19

Enceladus

238,000

260

8.40e19

Tethys

295,000

530

7.55e20

Telesto

295,000

15

Mass unknown

Calypso

295,000

13

Mass unknown

Dione

377,000

560

1.05e21

Helene

377,000

16

Mass unknown

Rhea

527,000

765

2.49e21

Titan

1,222,000

2575

1.35e23

Hyperion

1,481,000

143

1.77e19

Iapetus

3,561,000

730

1.88e21

Phoebe

12,952,000

110

4.00e18

 

 

 

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