SATURN
Saturn is the biggest planet, after Jupiter. Like Jupiter, it is a giant ball of gas. Saturn is a favourite planet among astronomers because of its shining rings. The rings appear to change shape year by year as the planet makes its way round the Sun.
What are Saturn ‘s rings made of?
Saturn is surrounded by many rings, but only three can be seen from Earth. The other rings were discovered by space probes. The rings look like solid sheets, but they are not. They are made up of millions upon millions of bits of ice, whizzing round the planet at high speed. The bits vary in size from specks of dust to large chunks. In places, the rings are less than 50 metres thick.
Why is Saturn so cloudy?
Saturn is a very cloudy planet. The clouds form into bands parallel to the equator because the planet is spinning round so fast. These bands are not as easy to see as they are on Jupiter because of the haze that tops the atmosphere. There seem to be three main cloud layers of Saturn, located at different level, with clear areas in between. The upper layers of cloud are made up of ammonia and ammonium compounds. At the lowest level, the clouds seem to be made up of water and ice particles, like the clouds wa have on Earth.
What’s Saturn like inside?
Saturn is a gas giant, which means that it is composed mainly of gas and iquid gas. Its cloudy atmosphere is made up almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. Below that lies a vast, deep ocean of liquid hydrogen. Deeper down is a layer of hydrogen in the form of a liquid metal. At the centre of the planet, there is a small core of rock.
What are Saturn’s moons like?
Saturn has at least 18 moons – more than other planet. Only five have a diameter greater than 1,000 kilometres – Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan and Lapetus. The smallest, Pan, is only about 20 kilometres across. Biggest by far is Titan. With a diameter of 5,140 kilometres, it is the second largest moon in the whole Solar System, and the only one that has a thick atmosphere.
What is Titan’s surface like?
Titan’s thick atmosphere is made up mainly of nitrogen gas. It is orange in colour and full of hazy clouds that stop us seeing what its surface is like. Astronomers reckon that it may be covered with great lakes or seas of liquid methane, and there may be land areas covered with methane ice and snow. In 2004, the Cassini space probe will drop a landing probe(Huygens) on to the surface, which should tell us what conditions are like there.
SATURN DATA
Diameter of equator : 120,000 km
Diameter of visible rings : 270,000 km
Average distance from Sun : 1,427 million km
Minimum distance from Earth : 1,200 million km
Turns of axis : 10 hours 40 minutes
Circles Sun : 29.5 Earth-day
Temperature at cloud tops : -170°C
Satellites : 18 known
Saturn is the biggest planet, after Jupiter. Like Jupiter, it is a giant ball of gas. Saturn is a favourite planet among astronomers because of its shining rings. The rings appear to change shape year by year as the planet makes its way round the Sun.
What are Saturn ‘s rings made of?
Saturn is surrounded by many rings, but only three can be seen from Earth. The other rings were discovered by space probes. The rings look like solid sheets, but they are not. They are made up of millions upon millions of bits of ice, whizzing round the planet at high speed. The bits vary in size from specks of dust to large chunks. In places, the rings are less than 50 metres thick.
Why is Saturn so cloudy?
Saturn is a very cloudy planet. The clouds form into bands parallel to the equator because the planet is spinning round so fast. These bands are not as easy to see as they are on Jupiter because of the haze that tops the atmosphere. There seem to be three main cloud layers of Saturn, located at different level, with clear areas in between. The upper layers of cloud are made up of ammonia and ammonium compounds. At the lowest level, the clouds seem to be made up of water and ice particles, like the clouds wa have on Earth.
What’s Saturn like inside?
Saturn is a gas giant, which means that it is composed mainly of gas and iquid gas. Its cloudy atmosphere is made up almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. Below that lies a vast, deep ocean of liquid hydrogen. Deeper down is a layer of hydrogen in the form of a liquid metal. At the centre of the planet, there is a small core of rock.
What are Saturn’s moons like?
Saturn has at least 18 moons – more than other planet. Only five have a diameter greater than 1,000 kilometres – Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan and Lapetus. The smallest, Pan, is only about 20 kilometres across. Biggest by far is Titan. With a diameter of 5,140 kilometres, it is the second largest moon in the whole Solar System, and the only one that has a thick atmosphere.
What is Titan’s surface like?
Titan’s thick atmosphere is made up mainly of nitrogen gas. It is orange in colour and full of hazy clouds that stop us seeing what its surface is like. Astronomers reckon that it may be covered with great lakes or seas of liquid methane, and there may be land areas covered with methane ice and snow. In 2004, the Cassini space probe will drop a landing probe(Huygens) on to the surface, which should tell us what conditions are like there.
SATURN DATA
Diameter of equator : 120,000 km
Diameter of visible rings : 270,000 km
Average distance from Sun : 1,427 million km
Minimum distance from Earth : 1,200 million km
Turns of axis : 10 hours 40 minutes
Circles Sun : 29.5 Earth-day
Temperature at cloud tops : -170°C
Satellites : 18 known
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