ALL ABOUT SATURN DESCRIPTION

WHO NAMED PLANET SATURN AS SATURN?

 The names of most of the solar system's eight planets can be traced back to Roman
mythology. The Romans named the five planets that could be seen with the naked eye
in the night sky after gods and goddesses. The solar system's largest planet, Jupiter,
was named after the Roman god's king, while the reddish color of Mars inspired the
Romans to name it after their god of war. Mercury, which completes a full orbit around
the Sun in only 88 Earth days, is named after the swift messenger of the gods. Saturn,
the second-largest planet in the solar system, takes 29 Earth years to complete one full
revolution of the Sun and is named after the god of agriculture. The brightest planet,
Venus, was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty.
WHAT IS SATURN MADE OF?

 Saturn is primarily composed of hydrogen, which it absorbed during its early stages of
formation. Helium makes up the majority of the remaining composition. Other elements,
such as methane and ammonia, are present in trace amounts. Within the atmosphere,
nitrogen and oxygen also mix. Despite accounting for nearly a quarter of the planet's
mass, the atmosphere is only about 7 percent helium. This implies that a significant
portion of the planet's helium is sinking through the hydrogen.
 Like the other Jovian planets (Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune), Saturn is primarily a ball of
gas with no solid surface. According to studies based on Voyager’s spectrometer, Saturn
is made up of about 94% hydrogen, 6% helium, and small amounts of methane (CH4)
and ammonia (NH3). The primary components, hydrogen and helium, are the same
gases out of which the Sun and most stars are made. Detailed analysis of Saturn’s
gravitational field
leads astronomers to believe that the deepest interior of Saturn must consist of a molten
rock core about the same size as Earth, but much more massive than Earth. This core is
only a small percentage of Saturn’s total mass.
WHEN WAS SATURN DISCOVERED?

 For thousands of years, Saturn was one of the five visible to the naked eye planets
known to exist. The planet was known to the Ancient Greeks, who named it Kronos after
their god of agriculture. This could be due to the planet's golden color, which resembles
wheat. The planet was later known as Saturnus or Saturn, the Roman God equivalent of
Kronos. With Saturn the farthest away of the five planets visible with the naked eye,
Saturn was known to people other than the Romans and Greeks. It was one of the nine
Navagrahas in Hindu culture, which are the main celestial bodies thought to have an
influence over people's lives.
If Saturn is so much more massive than Earth, why is it said that Saturn could float in
water?

 Saturn has the lowest density of any planet in the Solar System! So even though Saturn
is much more massive than Earth, but its mass is distributed over a much larger volume
 than Earth, so Saturn is less dense. Saturn's average density is 0.69 gram cubic
centimeter, which is less than to water's 1.0 gram cubic centimeter. This means that a
volume of water equal to Saturn's volume would weigh more than Saturn. So, if we
imagine a titanic tub of water large enough to hold Saturn, the water would support
Saturn's weight and Saturn would float!
Could we breathe Saturn’s atmosphere?

 No. Saturn's atmosphere is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium, the same gases
that make up the Sun and most stars. Such an atmosphere is not poisonous to humans,
but it also does not provide the oxygen required for human survival.
Pictures of Saturn show that it sort of flattens out near the poles and is wider at the
equator. Why is that?

 Saturn is approximately 60,000 kilometers (37,200 miles) from center to equator, but
only 54,000 kilometers (33,480 miles) from center to pole. The distance between them is
6000 km (3,720 mi), which is nearly the radius of the Earth! Saturn is thus said to be
quite oblate because, the greater the difference in polar and equatorial distances, the
more oblate the planet's shape is,
 and also, Saturn spins much faster than Earth around its polar axis. Despite being much
larger than Earth, Saturn rotates once every 10 hours and 39 minutes, which is more
than twice as fast as Earth. Saturn’s rotation causes it to have the shape of an oblate
spheroid; that is, it is flattened at the poles and bulges at its equator.
 If a planet or star is oblate, it means it is spinning at a high velocity. Also, gravity from
satellites may cause an oblation, but only a slight one.
Since Saturn does not have a solid surface, would I sink to the middle of the planet if I
tried to walk there?
Saturn has an outer layer of clouds that we call the planet's "edge." The atmospheric pressure
at the top of these clouds is the same as that of Earth's air. As a result, walking there would be
like trying to walk on air. You would indeed sink — or fall — through Saturn's interior layers. The
pressure would build up as you moved deeper into the planet's atmosphere, and you would
eventually be crushed.
What is the temperature on Saturn?

 The temperature near Saturn's cloud tops has been measured to be around –143 °C (–
225 °F) by astronomers. Because the gases are compressed to much higher pressures
at depth, the temperature rises with depth. According to computer models, Saturn's core
could be as hot as 10,000 °C (18,000 °F). Saturn is about ten times as far away from the
Sun as Earth, so it receives only about 1/100th (1%) the amount of sunlight per square
meter that Earth does. Nonetheless, Saturn is warmer than would be expected if the
solar energy absorbed equaled the energy emitted. Saturn mysteriously emits 80% more
energy than it absorbs from sunlight. Saturn, unlike the rocky Earth and the more
massive Jupiter, should have no residual heat from its formation. As a result, there must
be a source of heat inside Saturn that is generating the excess energy. According to one
theory, the energy is generated by the friction of liquid helium raining down on the
planet's interior.
 “Most of the weather on Saturn is erratic,” said Andrew
Does Saturn have winds and storms?

 Saturn is shaken by strong winds. The highest wind speeds are found near the equator,
where easterly winds can reach 1,800 km/h. The wind speeds drop off as you travel
towards the poles. Like Jupiter, storms can appear in the bands that circle the
planet.  The Great White Spot, which was discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in
1990, was one of the largest of these. On Saturn, these storms appear only once a year
(once every 30 Earth years).
 A static hexagonal storm circling Saturn's north pole was discovered by NASA's Cassini
spacecraft, complete with a clearly defined eyewall – just like a hurricane. The northern
polar hexagon's sides are about 13,800 kilometers long, and the entire structure rotates
once every 10 hours and 39 minutes, or once every day on Saturn.

How old is Saturn?

 Saturn, along with the other planets, was formed 4.6 billion years ago from a
spinning disk of gas and dust. The Sun was formed as a result of a cloud of dust
collapsing, and the planets were formed as a result of the disk that surrounded it.
This explains why the planets all orbit the Sun in the same direction.
 Scientists believe that the Sun, the planets, and the rest of the solid bodies in the
Solar System formed at the same time from the solar nebula, about 4.54 billion
years ago.
What is Saturn atmosphere made of?
Saturn's atmosphere is similar to Jupiter's. Hydrogen constitutes nearly all of the atmosphere,
with smaller amounts of helium and even smaller amounts of methane and ammonia. Saturn
also has ammonia ice crystal clouds, but their tops are much colder than Jupiter's, approaching-
400 degrees F. However, at temperatures around -300 degrees Fahrenheit, the ammonia would
be frozen right out of the clouds. When you look at Saturn, you can see that its surface and
atmosphere are covered in haze. It most likely has a small, solid core surrounded by liquid and
very thick atmosphere, but it's not clear how big or small it is.

ATMOSPHERE CLOUDS LAYER

The planet's atmosphere is made up of gases like hydrogen, which makes up 93 percent of the
atmosphere, and helium, which are the basic gases found on all giant gas planets. Saturn's
atmosphere is divided into three layers, each of which is defined by its temperature. The
tropopause is the visible outer layer, which is primarily made up of ammonia clouds. The cloud
layer of ammonium hydro-sulfide clouds is closer to the planet's surface. Finally, clouds of water
that drop below 0 degrees Celsius make up the layer closest to the planet's icy fluid surface.
Why Saturn is an oblate shape?
Does Saturn's ring cast shadows?
Saturn’s rings do indeed cast a shadow. It can be seen a top Saturn’s dense clouds in several
photos taken by Voyager and Cassini.
WHY IONSPHERE GOT WEAKER?
Cassini measured a drastic drop in the amount of ionized plasma present when it traveled
through the shadows of Saturn's largest and brightest rings (the A and B rings), implying that
the ionosphere became weaker when it was shaded. Though intriguing, this isn't entirely
unexpected. Because ionospheres are formed when the Sun's ultraviolet light strips charged
particles from atoms in the planet's upper atmosphere, it makes sense that Saturn's ionosphere
would be weaker when the rings blocked the incoming sunlight.

However, the team found that even when the planet’s rings veiled Saturn’s ionosphere, there
was still measurable activity in the plasma. This indicates that sunlight is not the only thing that
influences Saturn's ionosphere. Though researchers are not certain what causes the
phenomenon, they theorize that Saturn’s innermost D-ring may be generating “ring rain” —
where charged water particles embedded in Saturn’s rings migrate to the ionosphere, keeping
the plasma mildly active.
Do Saturn have volcanoes?
Saturn, Neptune and Uranus are gas planets and have no solid surface. Therefore, they do not
have volcanoes. Some of their moons may have ice volcanoes.
WHY SATURN ONLY ABSORB SMALL AMOUNT OF SUN’S LIGHT?
The atmosphere of Saturn is almost entirely made up of hydrogen and helium. According to
Voyager 1, helium contributes to approximately 7% of the volume of Saturn's upper atmosphere
(compared to 11% of Jupiter's atmosphere), with hydrogen accounting for the remainder.
Because Saturn's internal helium abundance was expected to be the same as Jupiter's and the
Sun's, the lower abundance of helium in the upper atmosphere may imply that the heavier
helium is slowly sinking through Saturn's hydrogen, which could explain the excess heat that
Saturn radiates over energy received from the Sun.
HOW WAS SATURN FORMED?
There are two theories about how planets in our solar system formed. The first and most widely
accepted theory is core accretion, which works well for the formation of terrestrial planets but
has issues with giant planets like Saturn. The second method, disk instability, may explain the
formation of giant planets. During the core accretion, the solar system was a cloud of dust and
gas known as a solar nebula approximately 4.6 billion years ago. As the material began to spin,
gravity collapsed it in on itself, forming the sun in the center of the nebula. The remaining
material began to clump together as the sun rose. Small particles drew together, bound by
gravity, to form larger particles. Lighter elements, such as hydrogen and helium, were swept
away by the solar wind, leaving only heavy, rocky materials to form terrestrial worlds. However,
as one moves away from the sun, the solar winds have less of an impact on lighter elements,
allowing them to coalesce into gas giants like Saturn. Asteroids, comets, planets, and moons
were formed in this manner. Saturn is almost entirely made up of the light gas hydrogen, with a
significant portion of it also made up of helium. Other elements can be found in trace amounts in
Saturn's atmosphere as well. Saturn needed to form its massive core quickly in order to capture
these gases. The massive core could then gravitationally capture the lighter elements before
they were swept away by solar winds. However, one of the issues with core accretion is the
need for giant gas planets to form quickly. Models predict that the process will take several
million years, which is longer than the time when light gases were available in the early solar
system. Simultaneously, the core accretion model faces a migration problem, as the baby
planets are likely to spiral into the sun in a short period of time. According to a relatively new
theory, disk instability occurs when clumps of dust and gas are bound together early in the solar
system's life. These clumps gradually compact into a massive planet over time. These planets
can form faster than their core accretion competitors, sometimes in as little as a thousand years,
allowing them to trap the rapidly disappearing lighter gases. They also rapidly accumulate orbit-
stabilizing mass, preventing them from marching into the sun.

GREAT WHITE SPOT OR STORM IN SATURN

Every 20 to 30 years, Saturn's atmosphere is roiled by giant, planet-encircling thunderstorms
that produce intense lightning and enormous cloud disturbances. The head of one of these
storms—popularly called "great white spots," in analogy to the Great Red Spot of Jupiter—can
be as large as Earth. Unlike Jupiter's spot, which is calm at the center and has no lightning, the
Saturn spots are active at the center and have long tails that eventually wrap around the planet.
Six such storms have been observed on Saturn over the past 140 years, alternating between
the equator and midlatitudes, with the most recent emerging in December 2010 and encircling
the planet within six months. Saturn's storms usually occur when Saturn's northern hemisphere
is most tilted toward the sun. However, it's not clear what causes them or why they happen so
rarely.
Saturn’s orbit type
Like Jupiter and most of the other planets, Saturn has a regular orbit—that is, its motion around
the Sun is prograde (in the same direction that the Sun rotates) and has a small eccentricity
(noncircularity) and inclination to the ecliptic, the plane of Earth’s orbit.
SATURN’S SHADOW
Does Saturn have seasons like Earth’s?
Yes, sort of. Earth has seasons because of the tilt of its axis. Imagine a line drawn through
Earth from the North Pole to the South Pole. This line always points toward the distant star
Polaris, no matter where Earth is in its orbit of the Sun. This means that during Earth’s trip
around the Sun each year, sometimes the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, making
daytime longer so that the northern hemisphere receives brilliant, direct light that causes
warmer temperatures (summer). Six months later, when Earth is on the other side of the Sun,
the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, thus receiving less direct sunlight, causing
longer nights and colder temperatures (winter). In both cases, the line between Earth’s poles
points toward the star Polaris. Saturn has seasons in the sense that there are times of its year
when the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, and times of its year when the northern
hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun (with great ring viewing from Earth). But Saturn does not
have dramatic seasonal differences in temperature in the northern and southern hemispheres
as on Earth, nor do the temperatures cool down during the night on Saturn. Saturn’s internal
heat source and the way Saturn’s thick atmosphere retains heat make the temperatures of
Saturn’s atmosphere less dependent on where the Sun is presently shining on it. On Earth, a
season only lasts about 3 months. But since Saturn takes almost 30 Earth years to go around
the Sun, a Saturn season lasts more than 7 years — about the same amount of time it will take
the Cassini–Huygens spacecraft to get to Saturn! Some people have the misconception that
seasons are caused by a planet changing its distance in relation to the Sun.

 Although both Saturn and Earth change distances to the Sun slightly during their orbits,
this has a very small effect on their temperatures. Changing the distance to the Sun
does not explain why it’s winter in North America while it’s summer in Australia: Earth is
slightly closer to the Sun in January Than it is in July.
How long is a month on Saturn?
A calendar month on Earth is a bit longer than the time it takes for the Moon to completely orbit
Earth and go through a full set of moon phases — about 29.5 days. Saturn has many moons
whose times to orbit Saturn vary from half an Earth day to more than an Earth year; therefore,
no Saturn month has been formally established. If a Saturn month were to be based on its
largest moon, Titan, which takes about 16 Earth days to orbit Saturn, then a Saturn month
would be 36 Saturn days long.
Is there life on Saturn?
Probably not. Extreme temperatures, and lack of adequate water and oxygen make it highly
unlikely that life as we know it exists anywhere in Saturn’s atmosphere.
How long is a year on Saturn?
A year is the time it takes for Earth to make one complete trip around the Sun, or about 365
Earth days. It takes Saturn 29.5 Earth years to travel once around the Sun, so one Saturn year
is about 30 Earth years. If you were 15 Earth years old, you would only be half a Saturn year old
because Saturn would only have made half an orbit around the Sun since you were born!
How long is a day on Saturn?
A day on Earth is 24 hours long — the time it takes Earth to make one complete rotation relative
to the Sun. Saturn’s day is 10 hours 39 minutes — the time it takes Saturn to make one
complete rotation on its axis. Even though Saturn is much larger than Earth, a Saturn day is less
than half as long as an Earth day
Saturn rains diamond
Saturn is made up of a massive gaseous mass, and its environmental conditions and chemical
composition are so different from that of Earth that the rain is made up of diamonds rather than
water. According to scientists, approximately 10 million tons of these stones are produced in its
atmosphere each year.
This phenomenon occurs as a result of the interaction of methane gas (CH4) and storm activity.
Saturn's rays have extremely high temperatures, are 10,000 times stronger than Earth's, and
when they occur, they break the bonds of the molecules, separating the hydrogens on one side
and the carbons on the other.
Diamonds form about 100 miles underground on Earth. Volcanic magma highways then bring
them closer to the surface, supplying us with gleaming gemstones for rings and ear studs.
However, in the dense atmospheres of planets such as Jupiter and Saturn, whose massive size
generates enormous amounts of gravity, incredible amounts of pressure and heat can squeeze
carbon in mid-air — and make diamonds rain.
Does Saturn have a magnetic field like Earth’s?
Yes. Deep inside Saturn, probably in the deepest layers of liquid hydrogen and helium,
something is causing Saturn to act like a giant magnet. The same sort of thing happens in the
hot liquid iron core of Earth. On Earth, this magnetism causes compass needles to align with
Earth’s magnetic poles. The north-seeking end of a compass needle used on Earth would
actually point toward the south pole at Saturn! The Hubble Space Telescope has observed
auroras on Saturn. Auroras are caused when particles streaming from the Sun interact with
Saturn’s magnetic field.