DESCRIPTION OF PLANET SATURN
In our solar system, there are 9 planets and they orbit the sun in a particular path. Today we will discuss the planet SATURN.
Saturn is the sixth planet in our solar system which has an icy and rocky ring formation around the planets which makes it more unique in our solar system. Not only that, it is a gas giant made of mostly helium and hydrogen which makes it a more complex planet in our solar system.
With a radius of 58,230 km it has more than 50 confirmed moons and more than 20 moons which have not received the confirmation yet.
Saturn is 1.48 billion km far from our Sun and 1.33 billion km from our earth. If you travel at the speed of light, we will reach Saturn in 71 minutes. Today our normal spacecraft can take you to Saturn in 8 years.
FORMATION AND STRUCTURE
About 4.5 billion years ago our solar system started to form. Saturn took its shape as today about 4 billion years ago.
Just like Jupiter, the bigger planet in our solar system, Saturn is also made with gases mostly helium and hydrogen. The sun has the same two gases and because of the two gases the sun is burning but in this case, Saturn is unbelievably hot but not burning.
The Saturn core is smaller than Jupiter and the core of Saturn's core is made of iron, nickel and other solid compounds which get solidified by the extreme pressure and heat.
Saturn is the one and only planet in our solar system which has less average density than water. If a giant ocean can be found and throw Saturn into it, Saturn will float like a thermocol.
SURFACE AND ATMOSPHERE
Saturn does have a core but not a true solid surface. Due to extreme pressure and heat the hydrogen gets liquidified which creates an unsettled surface surrounding the core.
If you want to send a spacecraft into Saturn, it would not be able to land on this type of surface. Besides that, the extreme pressure will crush the spacecraft before it touches the surface.
Like other planets it also has different atmospheres. In the lower atmosphere, wind speed is extremely high and it's top cloud is 9000 km thick where Death Storm is running all the time. In the upper atmosphere, wind speed reaches almost 500 meters per second which is five times faster than our strongest hurricane on earth.
Voyager 1 was the first spacecraft which discovered the hexagon pattern in the north pole of Saturn. It was made by the six sided jet Stream with a speed of 320 km per hour and a massive rotating Storm in the middle and this pattern covers an area of 30000 Kilometres which makes it the most dangerous weather in our whole solar system..
ORBIT AND MOONS
In our solar system Jupiter is a planet which has the shortest day around 9.55 hours and Saturn only takes 10.7 hours to spin around its own axis while our earth takes 23.56 hours.
Every planet is titled in different positions according to their distance from the sun. Our earth is tilted by 23.5 degrees on its axis and Saturn is 26.73 degrees which supports different seasons on Saturn just like our earth.
Saturn takes 29.4 earth years to accomplish a complete orbit of the sun which is about 10,757 earth days.
As the ring formation of Saturn, it was so different to identify its moons. But NASA says there are 53 confirmed moons and 29 uncomfortable moons which are still waiting for a final confirmation by the astronomers.
MAGNETIC FIELD OF SATURN
Saturn's magnetic field is not stronger than Jupiter but it is 580 times stronger than our earth.
Saturn's magnetosphere is in the shape of a teardrop which is located all around the planet. The magnetosphere changes the charged particles behaviour and the particles are dominated by the magnetosphere.
The particles mostly come from the sun through the solar wind and the magnetosphere round side is facing the sun and creates a boundary which is also known as magnetopause. Saturn's magnetosphere affects the particles from the distance of 750000 miles from the centre.
The fluid metallic hydrogen and other components in the core creates the magnetic field through their motions as the heat is extremely high in Saturn, it affects the core components to move their positions.
Inside Jupiter, it is much hotter than planet Saturn and the mass is also more. As the heat is extremely high it affects the motion of fluid metallic components and that is why planet Jupiter has a bigger Magnetic field than Saturn.
RINGS FORMATION OF SATURN
In pictures we see the rings as a single solid disc. But it is made of uncountable pieces of asteroids, comets, some parts of smashed moons, dust, icy chunks and the rocks.
The ring is extended upto 282,000 kilometres around the Saturn and vertically 10 meters thick and it has some particles which are bigger than a mountain and some are small like dust.
There are several rings around the planet. Cassini confirmed there are A, B ,C which are the main rings and D, E, F, G are thinner and not noticeable. The gaps between them are not too much but the main two rings, A and B have a gap of about 4700 kilometres.
The rings look mostly white when we see them from the cloud tops of Saturn and seem like it's spinning too fast but each ring orbits at a different speed around the planet.
Cassini also found that Saturn moon Phoebe also has a faint ring around it. The total mass of the ring is about 4700 less than our moon mass.
NASA says about 100 million years ago there was a collision which helped in creating this ring. Though now our solar system is a stable system but in the cosmos anything could happen.
IMPORTANT FACTS
- The gravity around a planet gets changed based on it’s inner structure and movement. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft measured Saturn’s gravitational field by completely turning off its thrusters during portions of five of the final orbits.
- Several shades are visible on Saturn's cloud which are yellow, brown and grey.
- Saturn is not a suitable place for living things to take hold but some of its many moons have that potential to support lives. It is believed that Saturn moon Titan has internal oceans which could possibly support life but it is not confirmed yet.
Credit: NASA
E-mail-supammaity123@gmail.Com
SUPAM MAITY.
