Saturn

It seemed like Saturn was playing a joke on Galileo. The Italian astronomer and scientist is credited with discovering the rings of the planet but did not immediately recognise them as such. While he puzzled it out a later observation when Saturn was turned in such a way that the rings were invisible left Galileo scratching his head. When next they reappeared he was thoroughly confused. In modern times, however, the rings are the most recognisable feature of this sixth planet in the solar system.

A Look at Saturn

As one of the five originally known planets of the solar system, Saturn has been known since ancient times. Named after the Roman god Saturnus, it has enjoyed a long history of respect and reverence by many cultures, and the day of the week, Saturday, was named after it. Along with its very visible and trademark ring system, Saturn is a fairly popular planet.

Saturn is one of the gas giants in our solar system and is the second largest planet next to Jupiter. It is sometimes called a “Jovian Planet” in relation to Jupiter and shares a lot in common with its fellow gas giant. It has a banded cloud system in its atmosphere, but does not share quite so many features in its cloud systems. Where Jupiter has its “Great Red Spot”, a storm that has raged for hundreds of years, the atmosphere of Saturn seems to be relatively calm. Drop down into the winds, however, and you will be in for quite a ride. A leaf on the wind on Saturn will fly passed at 500 metres per second, or a rate of 1,800 kilometres per hour, the fastest in the solar system.

Saturn isn’t without its special storms and clouds, however. Once every thirty years a Great White Spot appears, a huge storm that is an “annual” occurrence on Saturn. In addition to this phenomenon are the unique cloud structures of the north pole - the circulating clouds are actually hexagonal in shape. Saturn is also the only planet in the solar system outside of earth where a storm with a distinct eyewall has been observed.

Saturn’s Rings

When Galileo first discovered the rings of Saturn in 1610 he described them as if they were a part of the planet itself. Saturn proper was in the middle, and there were two other parts of the planet surrounding it, yet never touching. Then he called them “Saturn’s ears” and thought of them as moons. It was another astronomer with access to a better telescope in1655, Christiaan Huygens, who first labelled them rings. Further work by other astronomers soon figured out that they were not connected to the planet, that they were not solid, and that there were many smaller rings compromising a ring system.

There are a number of theories about how the ring system formed, mostly surrounding the destruction of one of Saturn’s moons by some massive collision. The thought that the rings were left over matter from the time of the planet’s creation has been dismissed because they have a history of instability going back only a few million years, making them too young.

Final Thoughts

Saturn remains one of the most fascinating planets to study, but let’s not forget its moon Titan. The largest object in the solar system after the sun and planets (and Jupiter’s moon Ganymede), Titan is the only moon with a dense atmosphere.

Related Articles in the 'The Planets' Category...

• All About The Earth
• ISS Assembly Sequence
• Jupiter
• Mars
• Neptune
• Planet Mercury
• Planet Venus
• Planets Outside the Solar System
• Pluto
• Uranus