Characteristics of the planet Saturn
The planet Saturn (in English: Saturn) is the sixth planet farthest from the sun and the second largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter. It is a gas giant planet consisting of hydrogen and does not have a solid surface. Its average radius is about nine times and half the diameter of the Earth. The most distinctive feature of the planet is Saturn. Saturn has its prominent rings, which consist of ice particles mixed with an amount of crushed rocks and dust. Saturn is known for its many moons. It has at least 82 moons orbiting it, 53 of which have been named. Titan is one of the largest moons of Saturn and the second largest moon in the solar system, and is larger than the planet Mercury. The only moon in the solar system that has a large atmosphere. Saturn has a massive atmosphere, or dense layer of gases, with complex weather patterns.
Physical properties of Saturn
Saturn's orbit is located between the orbit of Jupiter and Uranus. Saturn consists mostly of gaseous liquid hydrogen and helium, and its diameter is about 120,536 kilometers. Due to the lack of a solid surface for the planet, its diameter is measured at a level where the atmospheric pressure is 1 bar, which is equivalent to the pressure at sea level on Earth. Earth, and the diameter of Saturn is nine times larger than the diameter of the Earth, as the size of the planet is about 95 times the mass of the Earth and its volume is 750 times larger than the Earth.
The orbit and rotation of the planet Saturn
Saturn revolves around the sun in a slightly elliptical or elliptical orbit at an average distance of about 1,427 billion kilometers, and its orbit is about 9.5 times the Earth’s orbit. It takes Saturn about 29.4 Earth years to complete one orbit around the sun, so a year on Saturn is about 29.4 times longer than a year. On the ground.
The planet Saturn rotates around itself quickly due to it being a gaseous, non-solid planet, but it was difficult to determine its exact rotation rate, so the speed of rotation of the planet’s clouds was measured. The clouds rotate in the atmosphere near the equator as quickly as possible and take about 10 hours and 10 minutes for each rotation. The clouds near the poles may take about 30 minutes to rotate. But in 2019, scientists were able to determine the planet’s rotation rate around itself to be 10 hours, 33 minutes, and 38 seconds. Their calculations were based on data from the Cassini spacecraft. A day on the planet was determined by its rotation period, so a day on Saturn is about 10.5. An Earth hour or less than half a day on Earth.
As is the case for all planets, rotation causes some bulging at the equator and flattening at the poles. Saturn's rapid rotation and low density make it the least spherical of all the planets. The diameter at its poles is about 10 percent smaller than the diameter at the equator.
Saturn's axis of rotation tilts about 26.7 degrees relative to the ecliptic, which is an imaginary plane that passes through the sun and the Earth's orbit. When Saturn revolves around the sun, one half of it tilts first and then the other closer to the sun. As a result, Saturn has seasons like the Earth, but its seasons are longer. Each season on Saturn may last longer. Seven Earth years.
Saturn's magnetic field
Saturn has a natural dipole magnetic field similar to Earth's magnetic field. This field on Saturn is unique in that it is completely symmetrical, unlike any other known planet, which means that the field is in line with the planet's axis. Saturn generates radio waves, but they are too weak to be detected from Earth. The moon Titan orbits in the outer part of the planet's magnetic field and gives off plasma to the field of ionized particles in Titan's atmosphere.
Atmosphere and climate of Saturn
Saturn is surrounded by a massive atmosphere composed mostly of hydrogen with some helium and smaller amounts of methane, ammonia and other gases, and scientists believe that small amounts of water vapor and hydrogen sulfide are likely present at low levels of the atmosphere. In terms of pressure, it increases with depth in the atmosphere. At low levels, where the pressure is very high, the hydrogen is likely to be crushed into a liquid. The temperature in the atmosphere is also at its coldest, about −312 degrees Fahrenheit (−191 degrees Celsius), and as is the case On Earth the temperature gets colder with height at the lowest level of the atmosphere but the temperature rises with height at the middle level, and at the highest level the temperature is fairly constant.
Saturn's ring system
The planet Saturn has always been distinguished by its amazing rings, as its rings are bright and wide, more than the narrow and dull rings of other planets, so they are easy to see from Earth, which is why they were the first to be discovered. These rings consist of several particles, most of which are water ice and dust, and they all revolve around Saturn like small moons. The size of the particles ranges from a speck of dust to the size of cars or houses. They were first observed by Galileo through a telescope in 1610, but he did not identify them as rings. In 1655, using a more powerful telescope, the scientist Christian Huygens was able to see a flat, solid ring around Saturn, and the scientist James Clerk Maxwell explained mathematically that the rings cannot be solid, but rather made of many small particles, This theory was confirmed by observations made by James Keller in the 1890s. Cameras of the Voyager spacecraft in the 1980s revealed the presence of hundreds of thousands of individual rings around Saturn, and in the 2000s, the Cassini spacecraft discovered additional rings and structures within them.
Moons of Saturn
There are 82 known moons orbiting Saturn, nine of which have diameters greater than (200 km). The main moons are Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Phoebe. All of them were discovered before the twentieth century, and the rest of the moons were discovered in Late twentieth century or early twenty-first century. Saturn's inner moons are called regular because they rotate in circular paths almost at or near the level of Saturn's orbit. The inner moons include all of Saturn's main moons except Phoebe, in addition to dozens of other moons. As for the planet's outer moons, they are irregular and have very elongated orbits. Titan is one of the moons. The largest moon of Saturn, it has a thick atmosphere and is the only moon in the known solar system With a dense atmosphere and clouds.
Exploration trips
The first exploration of Saturn was carried out by the Pioneer spacecraft in September 1979. The spacecraft flew 20,000 kilometers above the planet's cloud tops and took low-resolution images of the planet and some of its moons. During this flight, a new thin ring was discovered. It was also discovered that the gaps in the dark ring appear bright when viewed towards the Sun, which indicates that the gaps are not devoid of material. The spacecraft also measured the temperature of the moon Titan during this flight.
In November 1980, the Voyager 1 spacecraft visited Saturn and took high-resolution pictures of the planet, the rings, and the moons. These pictures showed the features of the moons’ surfaces. Then Voyager 1 approached Titan and obtained a lot of information about its atmosphere. In August 1981, Voyager 2 continued to study the planet and images taken by the space probe showed changes in the rings and atmosphere.
On July 1, 2004, the Cassini-Huygens probe entered orbit around Saturn. Before that, it passed near the moon Phoebe and took high-resolution images of its surface and collected data. On December 25, 2004, the Huygens probe separated from the Cassini probe before moving towards the surface of Titan and landing there on January 14, 2005, where it landed on a dry surface but found large liquid bodies present on the moon. The Cassini probe continued to collect data from Titan and a number of icy moons, and found evidence that Enceladus' water was erupting from geysers of hot water. Cassini's July 2006 mission also demonstrated the existence of hydrocarbon lakes on Titan located near its north pole. In March 2007, a hydrocarbon lake as large as the Caspian Sea was discovered near its north pole.
The Cassini mission has also recorded the occurrence of lightning at Saturn since early 2005. The power of the lightning has been measured to be 1,000 times more powerful than lightning on Earth. Astronomers believe that the lightning observed on Saturn is the most powerful ever.
Astronomy and outer space science enthusiasts
Source: websites