TEN FACTS ABOUT SATURN
Space exploration began several centuries ago with scientist developing a keen interest in the knowledge of space. There was this desire and curiosity that arose, the desire to know what is there beyond earth. This desire arose from people wanting to know whether there exists another world other than the current one we live in, and whether there is life there in space. The discovery of the planet Uranus in the year 1781 by Sir William Herschel, planet Neptune in the year 1846 by John Couch Adams and Pluto by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in the last century is among the notable discoveries. As a result, governments have invested resources that would be channeled towards space exploration.
In October 1957, the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched into space. Later on after four years in April 1961, Russian Lt. Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth. Since then, a series of other space visits occurred aimed at studying beyond earth, the contents and properties. Thus the discovery of planets continued. One of the planets in existence was planet Saturn. It is the sixth planet from the sun. It is also the second largest planet. Here are some 10 important facts about this planet Saturn 1. Saturn is Surrounded by a ring
Saturn is one of the planets, apart from Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune planet in the solar system that is surrounded by a large, beautiful and extensive ring. Its ring is the biggest and brightest. It has thus been nicknamed famously as “The Ringed Planet”. These are actually many tiny rings called ringlets that make up the larger ring. An astronomer called Galileo was the first person to see Saturn’s rings when he was looking through space using a telescope in the year 1610. He however did not know what he was looking at. His thinking was that the rings were two moons that have stuck on the side of Saturn. It was not until 1655 that Christian Huygens, using a better telescope observed that they were rings. The rings around the planet are made of ice and rock. The pieces of ice and rock vary in size with some being as a small as a grain of sand while others being as large as the size of a house. Scientists have not been able to accurately find out how Saturn’s rings were formed, but it is thought that the moons in Saturn have a role to play in their occurrence around the planet. The theory goes that Saturn having at least 60 moons orbiting and also the presence of asteroids and meteoroids in space, these asteroids and meteoroids sometimes crash onto the moons breaking into pieces of different sizes. These pieces end up forming the rings.
From a far, Saturn seems to have seven large rings, each named after an alphabet letter in order in which they were discovered. Some rings are close together while others have large gaps between them. The rings are not still but instead, they circle around Saturn at very high speeds.
Saturn being more than 700 times larger than earth, the rings around Saturn are thousands of miles wide of up to 120,600 km away from the planet and an even larger circumference. 2. Saturn has 62 moons
Saturn has 62 moons travelling around it. The moons are of a variety of sizes and compositions. This ranges from pure ice to rocky material and also a combination of both ice and rocky material. The moons take an average form half an earth day to a bit over four earth days to journey around the ringed planet. The moons are said to have been made early in the solar system’s history. Titan, on of Saturn’s moons make up 96% of the mass orbiting around Saturn. Scientists think that there might have been two of the moons but one ended up disintegrating creating the debris forming the rings and the smaller moons. Another theory goes that several large moons existed, but two merged to form the Titan, with the violent collision scattering the debris to form the smaller moons.
Some of the moons travel within the gaps of the rings while others farther outside. The moons interact with each other. The large moons at times trap the smaller moons keeping them in a near distance. 16 of Saturn’s moons are tidally locked, one face being permanently turned to face Saturn. 3. Saturn’s Atmosphere
Saturn’s atmosphere is made up of approximately 75% Hydrogen and 25% Helium. Traces of other substances like methane and water ice can also be found.
The planet, observing using enhances-color images, is one of the windiest of the nine planets. The wind speeds at the equator have been clocked at around 1800 kilometers per hour. Violent “white” storms occasionally break the cloud layers, each being bigger than the size of the earth. Smaller storms are indicated by darker spots. Saturn’s troposphere, where the weather occurs, has three regions where the cloud decks are to be found. The clouds location is predicted basing on the temperature at which droplets will be able to condense from the vapor. The temperatures range form -130oC to 80o C. The top cloud deck, which is visible, is made of ammonia clouds, located about 100 kilometers below the tropopause, with temperatures being about -250oC. The second deck is made of ammonium hydrosulphide clouds, and is found at about 170 kilometers below the tropopause and the temperature there being -70oC. The lowest deck is found 130 kilometers below the tropopause and is made of water clouds, with temperatures at water’s freezing point. The hydrogen, which makes up 75% of the atmosphere slowly converts to liquid with depth and as the pressure increases. The heavier liquid helium rests below the liquid hydrogen. Hydrogen is subjected to tremendous pressure deep in the depths of Saturn’s body. This causes it to be transformed to liquid metallic hydrogen. 4. Saturn’s Interior
Saturn, despite consisting mostly of hydrogen and helium, most of its mass is not in gas form due to the gases condensing. The pressure and density of the planet gradually increases as you near the core. The deep layers cause the hydrogen to transit to a metal. The interior, according to standard planetary models, is similar to that of Jupiter, with a small rocky core covered with hydrogen and helium and trace amounts of volatiles. The core has similar components as the earth’s, but more dense. The core is estimated to be 9-22 times the earth’s size, corresponding to a diameter of roughly 25,000 kilometers. Its outermost layers span 1000 kilometers, and mainly consist of gas. The temperatures of Saturn’s interior reach a high of up to 11,700oC. The core radiated 2.5 times more energy to space than the amount of energy it receives from the sun. This heat can owed to the slow gravitational compression and the ‘raining out’ of helium droplets deep in Saturn’s interior. The friction generated as the helium droplets descend through the lower density hydrogen, thus in the process releasing heat and leaving the outer layers depleted of Helium. 5. Saturn in ancient Roman religion was the God of Agriculture
The ancient Roman religion considered Saturn to the god of Capitol, wealth, agriculture, libation and time. According to the religion, Saturn’s parents were Caelus and Terra and his children Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Juno, Ceres and Vesta. The religion states that the name Saturn was derived from ‘satu’ which means “sowing”. The roman soil preserved the remembrance of a remote time when Saturn and Janus reigned on the city’s site before its foundation. Saturn was identified with the Greek Cronus. Saturn had two consorts representing different aspects of the god. His wife was named Ops. Under Saturn’s rule, spontaneous bounty was enjoyed by the humans. Saturn’s temple was located at the base of Capitoline Hill. A festival associated with Saturn was the Saturnalia which celebrated the harvest and sowing. This festival ran from December 17-23. During the period, the social restrictions of Rome were relaxed and the image of Saturn released from its bindings .The ‘Golden Age’ conditions were reflected during the period of the festival. The planet’s symbol according to the Romans was a sickle. 6. Saturn’s shape, rotation and revolution
Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system. It has an equatorial diameter of 120,536 kilometers and a polar diameter of 108,728 kilometers which is 90% of the equatorial diameter, a feature caused by the fast rotation and low density of the planet. Saturn rotates on its axis once every 10 hours 34 minutes and thus, Saturn has the second shortest day of all the planets in the solar system. Initially it had been difficult to obtain the rotation speed of Saturn due to the planet not having a solid surface. Its speed was later on established by measuring the planet’s magnetic field.
Saturn is approximately 1,400,000,000 kilometers from the sun. It takes 10,759 earth days, equivalent of about 29.5 earth years for Saturn to complete a revolution. 7. Saturn is a flattened ball
Saturn’s rotation on its axis is so fast. The quick spinning flattens the planet out to for its oblate spheroid nature. Images obtained of Saturn appear to the eye as if the planet has been squished a little. The rapid spinning that’s squishing is what causes its equator to bulge out. 8. Sometimes the rings around Saturn Disappear.
Though not completely, at times the rings that surround Saturn look as if they are disappearing. This is due to the tilting of the planet as it revolves around the sun. Sometimes the rings are fully open making them clearly visible to the eye, but other times, the rings seem edged on. This makes them seem as if they have disappeared. These phenomena recently occurred in the year 2008-2009 and are projected to happen again in the year 2024-2025. 9. Saturn has been visited 4 times by spacecraft
The recent advancement in space technology has enabled scientists to explore the space better. Since the commencement of sending space crafts into space, four spacecraft have been able to visit Saturn, three of them being just brief flybys. The first was Pioneer 11, in 1979. This spacecraft managed to fly 20,000 kilometers of Saturn. Voyage 1 followed in 1980 and Voyage 2 in 1981. In 2004 is when a spacecraft orbited around Saturn capturing photographs of the planet, its rings and moons. 10. You can see Saturn with your own eyes.
Saturn is one of the five planets that one can be able to see with the unaided eye. Actually Saturn is one of the most beautiful things to view in the sky. In the solar system, Saturn is the fifth brightest object. However one needs to have a telescope to see the balls of the planet and the rings surrounding it. The Ringed Planet is the second largest planet in the solar system and in the sky when viewing with the unaided eye, it appears as the object shinning with a steady light with a golden color. Saturn is easily visible when closet to the sun. This will occur on June 3, 2016 where the earth will be in between the sun and Saturn.

The solar system is huge and complex with many objects. Saturn as one of the planets is among the most interesting things in space. Though much study of the planet has been carried out to give us the general properties of Saturn, there are still much to be discovered yet about it. But one thing is for sure, ‘The Ringed Planet’ is one of the most beautiful and interesting celestial bodies in existence.