Saturn Vishesh, Tevon and Karina

Geological Features Five layers:  Hot solid inner core of iron and rocky material.  A dense outer core of methane, and water.  A layer of liquid hydrogen surrounds the outer core.  Above this layer lies a region composed of hydrogen and helium in a viscous (syrup like) form.  A dense layer of clouds covers Saturn.

Atmosphere  Clouds  Atmospheric Pressure: 1.4  Composition:  Hydrogen 97%  Helium 3% Saturn’s Aurora Titan Flyby

Chemical composition  Saturn’s atmosphere is similar to the other gas planets, which means it is mainly made up of hydrogen and helium  The chemical composition of Saturn is studied by spectroscopy (mostly infrared) Saturn in Infrared

Mass and Size Mass  Mass (kg) 5.688e+26  Mass (Earth = 1) e+01  Density is 30% less then water  Its mean density is 0.69 Size  Equatorial diameter of 119,300 kilometres (74,130 miles).  Second largest planet in the solar system

Age and Formation  Radioactive dating from data by: Voyager Space Craft Bubble Space Telescope  4.6 billion years old (a little after Earth)  Outer planetoids remained cooler and formed a planet.  Rings 300 million years younger then Saturn- made by moon.  Rough surface temperature: 15, 000 ⁰C. Creation of rings

Moons  Has 31 officially recognized and named satellites as well as other unconfirmed satellites  There are 3 unconfirmed satellites, one circles the orbit of Dione, the second one is between the orbits of Tethys and Dione, and the third is located between Dione and Rhea  They were found in Voyager photographs but are not confirmed because they have only been sighted once.  Recently the Hubble telescope has imaged four new objects that could be moons.

The following chart names the known moons, as well as there number, radius, mass, distance, its discoverer and when it was discovered. Moon# Radius (km) Mass (kg) Distance (km) Discoverer PanXVIII9.655?133,583Mark R. Showalter S/2005 S17?136,530Cassini Spacecraft AtlasXV20x15?137,640R. Terrile PrometheusXVI72.5x42.5x e+17*139,350S. Collins & others PandoraXVII57x42x312.2e+17*141,700S. Collins & others EpimetheusXI72x54x495.6e+17*151,422R. Walker JanusX98x96x752.01e+18*151,472Audouin Dollfus MimasI E+19185,520William Herschel EnceladusII E+19238,020William Herschel TethysIII E+20294,660 Giovanni Domenico Cassini TelestoXIII17x14x13?294,660B. Smith & others CalypsoXIV17x11x11?294,660B. Smith & others DioneIV E+21377,400Giovanni Domenico Cassini

HeleneXII18x16x15?377,400 P. Laques & J. Lecacheus 1980 RheaV E+21527,040 Giovanni Domenico Cassini 1672 TitanVI E+231,221,850 Christiaan Huygens 1655 HyperionVII205x130x E+191,481,000 William Cranch Bond 1848 IapetusVIII E+213,561,300 Giovanni Domenico Cassini 1671 KiviuqXXIV7?11,365,000B. Gladman2000 IjiraqXXII5?11,442,000 J.J. Kavelaars, B. Gladman 2000 PhoebeIX115 x 110 x 1054E+1812,952,000 William Henry Pickering 1898 PaaliaqXX9.5?15,198,000B. Gladman2000 SkathiXXVII3.2?15,641,000 J.J. Kavelaars, B. Gladman 2000 AlbiorixXXVI13?16,394,000 M. Holman, T.B. Spahr 2000 ErriapoXXVIII4.3?17,604,000 J.J. Kavelaars, B. Gladman 2000 SiarnaqXXIX16?18,195,000 B. Gladman, J.J. Kavelaars 2000 TarvosXXI6.5?18,239,000 J.J. Kavelaars, B. Gladman 2000 S/2003 S13.3?18,719,000S.S. Sheppard2003

MundilfariXXV2.8? 18,722,00 0 B. Gladman, J.J. Kavelaars 2000 SuttungrXXIII2.8? 19,465,00 0 B. Gladman, J.J. Kavelaars 2000 ThrymrXXX2.8? 20,219,00 0 B. Gladman, J.J. Kavelaars 2000 YmirXIX8?23,130,00 0 B. Gladman 2000 Some facts about the moons: Only Titan has an appreciable atmosphere Most of the Satellites have a synchronous rotation except Hyperion which has a chaotic orbit and Phoebe The satellites have almost a circular orbit and lie in the equatorial plane except Lapetus and Phoebe All the satellites have a density of <2 gm/cm 3 They are composed of 30 to 40% rock, and 60 to 70% ice water Most of the satellites reflect 60 to 90% of light that strikes them, the four outer satellites reflect less and Phoebe only reflects 2%

Gravity  Even though Saturn is 95 times bigger than Earth, its gravitational pull is 1.07 stronger than earth’s own.  This is because Saturn is the has the lowest density in solar system).

Rotation, Revolution and Axis  Rotation  Saturn rotation is the 2nd fastest in our solar system, 10 hours and 39 min, more than 2 earth days.  Revolution  Saturn travels around the sun in an oval shaped path, (1,514,500,000 kilometres), this Revolution takes Earth days or 29.5 years.  Axis Tilt  Saturn is tilted at an angle of 26.7A, 2.7A more than Earth (23.4).

Saturn’s Revolution compared to the Earth’s.

Distance and Temperature  1.35 to 1.5 billion km from Sun.  1.2 billion km from Earth.  Assumed Core Temperature: 15, 000 ⁰C.  Atmospheric Temperature: -170 ⁰C or -274 ⁰F.  Water-ice temperature: -23 ⁰ C to -93 ⁰ C. Water ice

Magnetic Field  Dipole Magnetic Field.  0.2 Gauss.  It is because of this field, that Saturn’s moons and rings are in place.

Space probes used to explore Saturn:  Pioneer 11 traveled to Saturn, where it collected valuable information about the planet's rings  Voyager space probes reached Saturn in 1980 and 1981; they sent back pictures of Saturn’s rings and Moons.  Cassini is orbiting Saturn

Double Aurora by Hubble Space Telescope

Facts  Saturn has seven rings.  Saturn was named after the Roman god of agriculture.  Saturn’s were not discovered until Galileo viewed Saturn through his telescope.  Saturn’s rings are made up of ice particles floating around the equator of the planet.  The conditions on Saturn are so intense that even through experiments these conditions could not be obtained.  Saturn’s density is so low, that it could float on water. 833 Earths

References  Universe Today: saturn/ saturn/  Kysat:  titan-flyby.html titan-flyby.html  Solar Views:  NASA:  Probe.html Probe.html  Various websites for images

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