Saturn:
Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system with a diameter of about 74,500 miles it is nearly ten times greater in size than the Earth. At about 891,000,000 miles (112,000 planet Earths) away from the Sun, it is the sixth planet in our Solar System.
As you can see, Earth is a lot smaller than Saturn.
Saturn is similar to Jupiter in almost every way: both are made primarily of hydrogen and helium, both have the same internal structure (initial gaseous atmosphere, liquid metallic hydrogen interior layer, rocky/iron core), and both of them have a multitude of moons (next blog post will be on the moons of Saturn). Saturn however has one feature that no other planet in the Solar System has, a beautiful, large, and complex system of rings. Now, this is not to suggest that Saturn is the only planet with rings. Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus all boast fairly visible ring systems. None of them however can compare to the sheer immensity and beauty of Saturn's rings.
Jupiter's Rings as imaged by an infrared camera.
As you can you, Jupiter has a well defined ring system.
Uranus' rings
As does Uranus...
Neptune's rings. Picture taken by Voyager 2
And Neptune...
Here however, are the rings of Saturn
They really are quite incredible and dwarf the rings of every other planet in our Solar System. Because they are so spectacular, they have been studied extensively by NASA and countless other scientists the world over.
Saturn's Rings, with enhanced color, as imaged by Voyager 2
This image above, shows the true complexity present within Saturn's rings. As you can see, unlike the other planets, Saturn's rings have many gaps and unique features. These gaps have caused scientists to label each ring with a letter.
The names are given based on when each ring was discovered, not how far or how close it is to Saturn. Amazingly, these gaps, in some instances, formed naturally. Some of the gaps however are the result of some of Saturn's moons.
Known as shepherd moons, Prometheus (top) and Pandora (bottom) literally shepherd this ring, keeping it in place.
As you can see from the above image, two of Saturn's moons (Prometheus and Pandora) are literally shepherding one of Saturn's rings, in the sense that they keep it in place and keep its size relatively constant. Unusual features such as this are common in Saturn's ring system.
This image above shows another one of these features, the spokes that are present in Saturn's rings. These black smudges that appear on the rings are actually caused by Saturn's magnetic field interacting with particles inside the rings. They come and go with predictable regularity and were first discovered when Voyager first flew by Saturn. Scientists are unsure as to why they darken the areas of the rings that they affect, but research is still being conducted by the Cassini spacecraft imaging team.
Of the billions of objects that make up Saturn's rings, the largest each individual object gets is about the size of large house, so in terms of objects in space, Saturn's rings are made up of very insignificant clumps of water ice. Scientists have so far been unable to determine the origin of the rings, or how long they have been in existence, or how long they will be around. This is because the number of collisions between objects is extremely hard to measure, and Saturn's rings are still being fed by outside forces. More on this later, but Saturn's moons Enceladus is one of the main contributors of mass to the rings, perpetuating their life by countless numbers of years. One final note on the rings, which is demonstrated in the image below, is how skinny Saturn's rings are. When you look at them directly from the side, they appear to disappear. This is because the rings themselves are only a few hundred meters thick, minute in comparison to the amount of space the rings themselves take up. Many people think of the rings as these large objects, and this is because most of the images of the rings are from above or below, so that the rings themselves can be visible.
Thus far, this blog has discussed the rings of Saturn, definitely Saturn's coolest feature. This is because Saturn is pretty much a smaller clone of Jupiter. However, there are a few things about Saturn that help to distinguish it from its much bigger brother, Jupiter. The most obvious of these is Saturn's much less dynamic surface (when compared to Jupiter). Now, if you read my last blog post, you would know that Jupiter's surface is covered in storms, jet streams, and other random cool features. Saturn, for the most part, has a pretty static surface. Jet streams are present, but there are far fewer distinguishable surface features. However, when there are surface features, they tend to be large and powerful.
This image shows what is called a global storm. This image was taken by Hubble and shows a storm that goes 2/3 of the way around the entire planet, most of which is hidden by the dark side.
This image shows a storm on Saturn and as you can see, it takes up a large amount of space. Storms on Saturn have some of the fastest winds in the Solar System, some of them have been clocked at 1,100 miles per hour, nearly twice as fast as the fastest winds on Jupiter. The simple explanation for this is that there are less things on the planet that cause friction and thus, less things to slow the winds down. Speaking of winds, one of the biggest unexplained mysteries of the Solar system is on a part of Saturn that you might not have ever thought about, its north pole.
Saturn's North Pole, image courtesy of Cassini
This is an image of Saturn's hexagonal cloud. First discovered when Voyager flew by, scientists have no idea why a nearly perfect hexagon is floating on Saturn's north pole. Even now,over thirty years since it was discovered, scientists have absolutely no idea how this cloud is formed. It is a permanent fixture on Saturn's surface and the only explanation is that Saturn's magnetic field is interacting with something (possibly Jupiter's magnetic field) to create this amazing shape. My personal favorite idea for why this exists is that aliens have a power station just underneath the cloud, creating it. Whatever the explanation, it cannot be denied. There is a hexagonal cloud on top of Saturn and scientists haven't got a clue as to why it is there (I think this is really cool).
Saturn is many people's favorite planet, mainly because of its amazing rings. Take away the rings though, and Saturn is a pretty boring gas giant planet.
Saturn looks kind of lame without the rings to be perfectly honest.
Now Saturn's moons on the the other hand are unbelievably awesome and I will discuss them in great detail in my next blog post. Thanks so much for reading!!!
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