saturn (planet)

Saturn 

Saturn is the second biggest planet in the Solar System - 815 times as big in volume as the Earth, and measuring 120,000 km around its equator. Saturn takes 29 and a half years to travel round the Sun, so Saturn’s year is 29.46 Earth years. The planet’s complete orbit is a journey of more than 4.5 billion km.

Winds on saturn

 Winds ten times stronger than a hurricane on Earth swirl around Saturn’s equator, reaching up to 1,100 km/h - and they never let up, even for a moment. 

 Ancient Roman god of seed-time

 Saturn is named after Saturnus, the Ancient Roman god of seed-time and harvest. 
He was celebrated in the Roman’s wild, Christmas-time festival of Saturnalia. Saturn is not solid, but is made almost entirely of gas - mostly liquid hydrogen and helium. Only in the planet’s very small core is there any solid rock. Because Saturn is so massive, the pressure at its heart is enough to turn hydrogen solid. 

speed of saturn

That is why there is a layer of metallic hydrogen around the planet’s inner core of rock. Saturn is one of the fastest spinning of all the planets. Despite its size, it rotates in just 11.5 hours - which means it turns round at over 10,000 km/h. 

Density of saturn

Saturn is so low in density that if you could find a bath big enough, you would be able to float the planet in the water.Saturn’s rings are made of many millions of tiny, ice-coated rock fragments to be almost completely smooth, though Voyager 1 and 2 did photograph a few small, swirling storms when they flew past. Saturn has a very powerful magnetic field  and sends out strong radio signals. Saturn is almost as big as Jupiter.

 Saturn's beautiful rings

 Made largely of liquid hydrogen and helium, Saturn is stunningly beautiful, with its smooth, butterscotch surface (clouds of ammonia) and its shimmering halo of rings. But it is a very secretive planet. Telescopes have never pierced its upper atmosphere, and data from the Voyager probes focused on its rings and moons. But the Cassini probe, launched in 1997, may change this when it eventually descends into Saturn’s atmosphere . Saturn’s rings are sets of thin rings of ice, dust and tiny rocks, which orbit the planet around its equator. The rings shimmer as their ice is caught by sunlight. Saturn’s rings are one of the wonders of the Solar System, and many people think they make it the most beautifid planet. The rings may be fragments of a moon that was torn apart by Saturn’s gravity before it formed properly. Galileo was first to see Saturn’s rings, in 1610. But it was Dutch scientist Christian Huygens (1629-95) who first realized they were rings, in 1659. There are two main sets of rings - the A and the B rings. 
The A and B rings are separated by a gap called the Cassini division, after Italian astronomer Jean Cassini (1625-1712), who spotted it in 1675. A third large ring called the C or crepe ring was spotted closer to the planet in 1850. In the 1980s, space probes revealed many other rings and 10,000 or more ringlets, some just 10 m wide. 
 The rings are (in order out from the planet) D, C, B, Cassini division, A, F, G and E. Planets Seen up close it becomes clear that Saturn’s rings are made up of dust, rocks and ice, shimmering in sunlight. 

 Saturn’s moon 

Enceladus is marked by deep valleys, suggesting geological activity. This is quite rare in moons and smaller planets. The second largest is Saturn’s moon Titan. This moon is rather like a small frozen Earth, with a rocky core beneath a cold, nitrogen atmosphere. Saturn’s moon Iapetus is white on one side and black on the other. Saturn’s moon Enceladus is only 500 km across, and glistens because it is covered in beads of ice.