Important facts about the planet Saturn, which has an average density less than that of water

Arabia Weather - Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun and the second largest planet in our solar system. Like the gas giant Jupiter, Saturn is composed mainly of hydrogen and helium. Saturn is not the only planet around which the rings revolve, but there are no rings like the wonderful and complex ones that characterize Saturn's rings. In addition, Saturn has dozens of moons.

From the waterfalls spraying from Saturn's moon Enceladus to the methane lakes on Saturn's dim planet Titan, the Saturn system is a great source of scientific discoveries and many mysteries.

Is Saturn suitable for life?

Saturn's environment is not suitable for life as we know it. The temperatures, pressures and materials of this planet are likely to be too extreme and variable for living organisms to adapt to them.

While Saturn is not a likely place for living things to exist, the same is not true for some of its many moons. Moons like Enceladus and Titan, which have internal oceans, could likely be able to support life.

Size and distance of Saturn

With a radius of 36,183.7 miles (58,232 km), Saturn is 9 times wider than Earth. If Earth were the size of a half dollar, Saturn would be about the size of a volleyball.

From an average distance of 886 million miles (1.4 billion km), Saturn is 9.5 astronomical units from the Sun. One astronomical unit (abbreviated as AU), is the distance from the Sun to the Earth. From this distance, it takes sunlight 80 minutes to travel from the Sun to Saturn.

The orbit and rotation of the planet Saturn

Saturn has the second shortest day in the solar system. One day on Saturn takes only 10.7 hours (which is the time it takes Saturn to rotate once around its axis), and Saturn makes a complete revolution around the sun (a year in Saturn time) in about 29.4 Earth years (10,756 Earth days).

As for Saturn's axis, it is tilted at an angle of about 26.73 degrees compared to its rotation around the Sun, which is similar to the Earth's tilt of about 23.5 degrees. This means that Saturn, like Earth, experiences different seasons throughout the year.

Saturn's moons

Saturn is home to a wide variety of interesting and unique worlds. From Titan's fog-shrouded surface to its cratered Phoebe, each of Saturn's moons tells another part of the story surrounding the Saturnian system. As of June 8, 2023, Saturn has 146 moons in orbit, while others are constantly awaiting confirmation of their discovery and official naming by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Rings of Saturn

Saturn's rings are thought to be pieces of broken-up comets, asteroids or moons that broke off before reaching the planet, torn apart by Saturn's powerful gravity. They are made of billions of tiny pieces of ice and rock coated with other materials such as dust. Particles range mostly from small dust-sized ice grains to large house-sized pieces. Some particles are as large as mountains. The rings will appear mostly white if you view them from the tops of Saturn's clouds, and interestingly, each ring orbits at a different speed around the planet.

Saturn's ring system extends up to 175,000 miles (282,000 km) from the planet, yet the vertical height is typically about 30 feet (10 m) in the main rings. The rings are named alphabetically in the order in which they were discovered, and are relatively close together, except for a 2,920-mile (4,700 km) wide gap called the Cassini section that separates the A and B rings. The main loops are A, B and C. The D, E, F and G rings are fainter and were discovered more recently.

Starting at Saturn and moving outward, there are the D ring, the C ring, the B ring, the Cassini section, the A ring, the F ring, the G ring, and finally the E ring. Much further away is the very faint Phoebe ring in the orbit of Saturn's moon Phoebe.

Formation of the planet Saturn

Saturn formed when the rest of the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago when gravity pulled in swirling gas and dust to form this gas giant planet. About 4 billion years ago, Saturn settled in its current position in the outer solar system, where it is the sixth planet from the sun. Like Jupiter, Saturn is composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, the same two main components that make up the Sun.

Building Saturn

Like Jupiter, Saturn is composed mostly of hydrogen and helium. At the center of Saturn is a dense core of metals such as iron and nickel surrounded by rocky materials and other compounds that harden with intense pressure and heat. It is encased in liquid metallic hydrogen within a layer of liquid hydrogen, similar to Jupiter's core but much smaller.

It's hard to imagine, but Saturn is the only planet in our solar system that has an average density lower than that of water. A gas giant planet could float in a bathtub if such a massive object existed.

Surface of planet Saturn

As a gas giant planet, Saturn has no true surface. The planet consists mostly of gases and liquids circulating deep within it. While the spacecraft wouldn't have a place to land on Saturn, it wouldn't be able to fly past it unscathed either. The extreme pressures and temperatures deep inside the planet would crush, melt and vaporize any spacecraft trying to fly to the planet.

Atmosphere of planet Saturn

Saturn is covered in clouds that appear as faint lines, jet streams, and storms. The planet consists of different shades of yellow, brown and grey.

The wind speed in Saturn's upper atmosphere reaches 1,600 feet per second (500 meters per second) in the equatorial region. In contrast, the strongest hurricane winds on Earth have speeds of about 360 feet per second (110 meters per second). The pressure—the same kind you feel when you dive deep underwater—is so strong that it compresses the gas into a liquid.

Saturn's north pole also has an interesting atmospheric feature: a six-sided jet stream. This hexagonal pattern was first observed in images from the Voyager I spacecraft, and has been observed closely by the Cassini spacecraft ever since. Stretching about 20,000 miles (30,000 km) across, the hexagon is an undulating 200 mph (about 322 km/h) jet stream with a massive, rotating storm at the center. There is no weather feature like it anywhere else in the solar system.

Saturn's magnetic field

Saturn's magnetic field is smaller than Jupiter's magnetic field but is still 578 times stronger than Earth's magnetic field. Saturn, its rings, and many of its satellites lie entirely within Saturn's massive magnetosphere, the region of space in which the behavior of electrically charged particles is influenced more by Saturn's magnetic field than by the solar wind.

Auroras occur when charged particles enter the planet's atmosphere along magnetic field lines. On Earth, these charged particles come from the solar wind. But Cassini has shown that at least some of Saturn's aurora resembles Jupiter's aurora and is largely unaffected by the solar wind. Instead, these aurora are caused by a combination of particles ejected from Saturn's moons and the rapid rotation rate of Saturn's magnetic field. But these "non-solar" auroras are not yet fully understood.

Facts about the planet Saturn

• Day: 10.7 hours
• Year: 29 Earth years
• Radius: 36183.7 miles | 58232 kilometers
• Planet type: gas giant
• Moons: Saturn has 146 moons

Source: nasa