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Saturn
[History | Information
| Moons | Data]
Saturn is named after the Roman god of the harvest. It is well known for its complex
ring system as well as for its moon, Titan. Saturn is almost as large as Jupiter, but has
less than one-third the mass. In a large enough ocean, Saturn would float.
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Saturn lacks the striking banded cloud patterns that Jupiter has, but it makes of for
that with its magnificent rings. The reason for this is that Saturn is too cold of a
planet to form the convection currents in the mantle. Saturn is nearly twice as far away
from the sun as Jupiter is. The "surface" or Saturn is made up of frozen ammonia
clouds, the interior is similar to Jupiter's.
The complex ring system of Saturn is believed to come from a number of different sources.
First, the rings lie at about 2.44 the planetary radii of Saturn. At that distance, it has
been calculated that any moon made of a similar composition to that of the planet
will be pulled apart by the gravitational attraction. This distance is known as the Roche
Limit. Any satellite inside this limit will be pulled apart. Additionally, the
planet may have captured satellites, and broken them apart. There is a large gap in the
rings called the Cassini division. The gaps in the rings are thought to
have been caused by the shepherding action of satellites that orbit in resonance with the
rings (same plane as the rings). The particles in the rings vary in size from dust to
house-sized boulders (and bigger). They are approximately 50,000 miles across and 200
yards deep.
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Saturn has 18 moons, the most interesting of which is Titan. Titan is one of two moons
in the solar system to have its own atmosphere. Scientists believe that Titan is the most
likely place for life to be found other than Earth.
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Name of Satellite |
Average diameter in km |
| Pan |
20 |
| Atlas |
30 |
| Prometheus |
100 |
| Pandora |
90 |
| Janus |
190 |
| Epimetheus |
120 |
| Mimas |
380 |
| Enceladus |
500 |
| Tethys |
1050 |
| Telesto |
25 |
| Calpyso |
20 |
| Dione |
1120 |
| Helene |
30 |
| Rhea |
1530 |
| Titan |
5150 |
| Hyperion |
255 |
| Iapetus |
1440 |
| Phoebe |
220 |
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Distance from Sun:
Mean— 888,200,000 mi.
Shortest— 380,800,000 mi.
Greatest— 937,600,000 mi.
Closest approach to Earth— 762,700,000 mi.
Length of year (earth-days)— 10,759
Average orbital speed— 5.99mi. per sec.
Diameter at equator— 74,898 mi.
Rotation period— 10 hrs. 39 min.
Tilt of axis "(degrees)— 26.73
Temperature— -288 *F
Atmosphere:
Pressure— no surface
Gasses— Hydrogen, helium, methane, ammonia, ethane, phosphine, (?)
Mass (Earth=1)— 95.184
Density (g/cubic cm)— .69
Gravity (Earth=1)— 1.07
Number of known satellites— 18 |
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[Mercury | Venus | Earth | Mars | Jupiter]
[Saturn | Uranus | Neptune | Pluto] |
