Saturn is one of the eight major planets in the solar system. Its main distinguishing feature is large and incredibly beautiful rings.

General information:

1. The planet weighs 95 times more than the Earth. Its weight is 568 10 24 (568 septillion = 568 with 24 zeros) kilograms.
2. This giant can accommodate the Earth 750 times, being the second largest, after the planet in the solar system.
3. The planet consists of gases, hydrogen in it is 94%, and the rest is mostly helium.
4. A day on the planet lasts 10 and a quarter hours.
5. One revolution around the Sun takes almost 30 Earth years.
6. The temperature on the surface reaches -190º Celsius. The planet is included in a separate class of "ice giants" of the solar system, and is almost 10 times farther from the Sun than the Earth (for reference: our globe is 150 million km away from this hot star).
7. The diameter of the rings is about 300,000 km. On a fast rocket, you would fly from one end to the other for 2 days.
8. This huge ball, surrounded by ice rings, rotates at a speed of 60,000 km/h.

The history of the origin of the name of the planet

Its radiance in the sky was noticed as early as the 7th century BC. e. inhabitants of Ancient Assyria (modern Iraq). Many centuries later, the Greeks named this planet Kronos, after their god of the harvest, perhaps because of its special position in the sky during the summer harvest. Saturn was the Roman god of agriculture , therefore today the planet has such a name. By the way, one day of the week - Saturday - is also named after this Roman god (Saturday).

Rings

In 1610 Galileo Galilei first saw rings in his telescope Saturn. He saw some small objects, although he did not understand what they were. In his diary, the scientist drew what he saw. Later, 45 years later, the Dutch physicist H. Huygens answered this question. He also realized that not one ring, but several gigantic ones, was moving around the planet.

Today astronomers known to have 7 main rings. And each of them has its own characteristics. For example, ring A is almost transparent, so light can easily pass through it. Ring B is dense, saturated with material. C is even more transparent than A, and ring D is completely indistinguishable. The rings from the Earth can only be seen thanks to the Sun, as they made up of ice particles which reflect a large amount of sunlight.

The shimmering rings are incredibly large. They spread out so wide that they would fit between our planet and the orbit of the moon. However, their width is not thicker than one or two floors of a modern high-rise building. They are somewhat similar to hard disks, but they are made up of billions of pieces of various space debris. If you were inside one of the rings, it would seem to you that you were caught in a hail.

Peculiarities

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun. Its atmosphere consists of 5 layers. This huge ball of hydrogen and helium rotates around its axis, while changing its shape. Something similar happens to pizza when the chef tosses it up. Rotating, it becomes flat and stretches on the sides.

Saturn has a very low density. It is the only planet in the solar system that less dense than water. It is inflated, and the gases take up a lot of space compared to the total mass. If there was a huge ocean capable of accommodating the planet, then this large ball would not sink, but would float on the water.

Also, this ice giant has a very powerful weather system. In appearance, this is a very quiet and calm planet, although it is not. Storms there can last for days, weeks and even months. The wind speed can reach 1600 km/h. It is believed that there lightning that is millions of times stronger than on Earth.

Faithful companions of the ice ball

The largest satellite of the planet - Titanium. It is larger than Mercury and twice as large as the Moon. It was discovered by Christian Huygens back in 1655. Compared to the Titan Enceladus one of the smaller satellites. It is a tiny object with a diameter of only 500 km (1/8 of the moon). It was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel. Enceladus is a shiny ball of ice and rock. It is geologically active. Scientists observe constant eruptions on it. Astronomers are still discovering previously unknown satellites of the lord of the rings, so the exact number of them is unknown.

Orbiter "Cassini"

In 1997, Cassini, a 5.5-ton ship, set off for Saturn. The device reached this amazing giant in 2004. And much about the planet is known thanks to the Cassini satellite. He makes a detour of the rings, satellites and the planet itself. Every day, scientists conduct a thorough study of the images that they receive from the spacecraft.

Conclusion

Our report helped with one eye to look into. The planet with ears, as Galileo Galilei depicted it in his notes, turned out to be a real gem of the solar system. She delights space lovers with her shimmering beauty and amazes with the mathematical perfection of scientists.

If this message was useful to you, I would be glad to see you

Saturn

General information about Saturn

Saturn, the sixth from the Sun and the second largest planet after Jupiter, is a giant planet in the solar system. Named after one of the most revered Roman gods - the patron of the earth and crops, who was overthrown from his throne by Jupiter.

Observations of Saturn from Earth

Saturn has been known to people since ancient times. After all, in the night sky it is one of the brightest objects, visible as a yellowish star, the brightness of which varies from zero to the first magnitude (depending on the distance from the Earth).

In addition, only Saturn, when observed from the Earth through a telescope (and even in the simplest one), rings are visible, although they were found in all giant planets ...

History of Saturn Exploration

orbital motion and rotation of Saturn

Saturn revolves around the Sun in an orbit slightly inclined to the plane of the ecliptic, with an eccentricity of 0.0541 and a speed of 9.672 km / s, making a complete revolution in 29.46 Earth years. The average distance of the planet from the Sun is 9.537 AU, with a maximum of 10 AU. and minimum - 9 AU.

The angle between the planes of the equator and the orbit reaches 26 ° 73 ". The period of rotation around the axis - sidereal day - 10 hours 14 minutes (at latitudes up to 30 °). At the poles, the rotation period is 26 minutes longer - 10 hours 40 minutes. This is due to the fact that Saturn is not a solid body, like the Earth, for example, but a huge ball of gas... Due to such features of its structure, which, by the way, is not unique, the planet does not have a solid surface, so the radius of Saturn is determined by the position of the highest clouds in its Based on the measurement of this position, it turned out that the equatorial radius of Saturn, equal to 60268 km, is 5904 km greater than the polar one, i.e. the polar compression of the planetary disk is 1/10.

Structure and physical conditions on Saturn

The clouds on Saturn are mostly ammonia, white, and more powerful than on Jupiter, so Saturn's "banding" is less. Under the ammonia clouds lie less powerful, and invisible from space clouds of ammonium (NH 4 +).

The cloud layer of Saturn is not constant, but, on the contrary, is very variable. This is due to its rotation, which mainly occurs from west to east (as well as the rotation of the planet around its axis). The rotation is quite strong, because the winds on Saturn are not weak - with speeds up to 500 m / s. The direction of the winds is east.

The wind speed, and, accordingly, the speed of rotation of the cloud layer, decreases when moving from the equator to the poles, and at latitudes greater than 35°, the directions of the winds alternate, i.e. along with easterly winds, westerly winds are present.

The predominance of easterly currents indicates that the winds are not limited by the upper cloud layer, they should spread inward for at least 2000 kilometers. In addition, Voyager 2 measurements showed that the winds in the southern and northern hemispheres are symmetrical about the equator! There is an assumption that the symmetric flows are somehow connected under the layer of the visible atmosphere.

By the way, when studying images of the atmosphere of Saturn, it was found that here, just like on Jupiter, powerful atmospheric vortices can form, the dimensions of which are not really as gigantic as those of the Great Red Spot, which is visible even from Earth, but still reach in diameter thousand kilometers. Such powerful whirlwinds, similar to terrestrial cyclones, are formed in areas of rising warm air.

The difference between the northern and southern hemispheres of Saturn was also revealed.

This difference lies in the cleaner atmosphere over the northern hemisphere, caused by the almost complete absence of high clouds. Why the upper atmosphere in the northern hemisphere is so free of clouds is not known, but it is speculated that this may be due to lower temperatures (~82 K)...

The mass of Saturn is huge - 5.68 10 26 kg, which is 95.1 times the mass of the Earth. However, the average density is only 0.68 g/cm. 3 is almost an order of magnitude less than the density of the Earth and less than the density of water, which is a unique case among the planets of the solar system.

This is explained by the composition of the gaseous shell of the planet, which, on the whole, does not differ from the solar one, because the absolutely dominant chemical element on Saturn is hydrogen, though in various states of aggregation.

So, the atmosphere of Saturn consists almost entirely of molecular hydrogen (~ 95%), with a small amount of helium (no more than 5%), impurities of methane (CH 4), ammonia (NH 3), deuterium (heavy hydrogen) and ethane (CH 3 CH 3). Traces of the presence of ammonia and water ice were found.

Below the atmospheric layer, at a pressure of ~100,000 bar, there is an ocean of liquid molecular hydrogen.

Even lower - 30 thousand km. from the surface, where the pressure reaches one million bar, the hydrogen transition to the metallic state. It is in this layer, when the metal moves, that a powerful magnetic field of Saturn is created, which will be discussed below.

Below the layer of metallic hydrogen is a liquid mixture of water, methane and ammonia, at high pressure and temperature. Finally, in the very center of Saturn lies a small but massive stony or glacial-stony core, the temperature of which is ~20,000 K.

Saturn's magnetosphere

Around Saturn there is an extensive magnetic field with a magnetic induction at the level of visible clouds at the equator of 0.2 Gs, created by the movement of matter in a layer of metallic hydrogen. The absence of magnetic bremsstrahlung observed from Earth on Saturn was explained by astronomers as the influence of the rings. These assumptions were confirmed during the flight past the planet AMS "Pioneer-11". The instruments installed at the interplanetary station registered in the circumplanetary space of Saturn formations typical of a planet with a pronounced magnetic field: a bow shock wave, the boundary of the magnetosphere (magnetopause), and radiation belts. The outer radius of Saturn's magnetosphere at the subsolar point is 23 equatorial radii of the planet, and the distance to the shock wave is 26 radii.

The radiation belts of Saturn are so extensive that they cover not only the rings, but also the orbits of some of the planet's inner satellites. As expected, in the inner part of the radiation belts, which is "blocked" by Saturn's rings, the concentration of charged particles is very low. This happens because charged particles, moving from pole to pole, pass through a system of rings and are absorbed there by ice and dust. As a result, the inner part of the radiation belts, which in the absence of rings would be the most intense source of radio emission in the Saturn system, is weakened.

But still, the concentration of charged particles in the inner regions of the radiation belts allows the formation of auroras in the polar regions of Saturn, which are similar to those that we can see on Earth. The reason for their formation is the same - bombardment by charged particles of the atmosphere.

As a result of this bombardment, atmospheric gases glow in the ultraviolet range (110-160 nanometers). Electromagnetic waves of this length are absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere and can only be observed by space telescopes.

Rings of Saturn

Well, now let's move on to one of the most characteristic details of the structure of Saturn - its huge flat ring.

The ring around Saturn was first observed by G. Galileo in 1610, but due to the poor quality of the telescope, he took parts of the ring visible at the edges of the planet as satellites of the planet.

The correct description of the ring of Saturn was given by the Dutch scientist H. Huygens in 1659, and the French astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1675 showed that it consists of two concentric components - rings A and B, separated by a dark gap (the so-called "Cassini division").

Much later (in 1850), the American astronomer W. Bond discovered the inner faintly luminous C ring, which is sometimes called "crepe" because of the dark color, and in 1969 an even weaker and closer to the planet ring D was discovered, the brightness which does not exceed 1/20 of the brightness of the brightest middle ring.

In addition to the above, Saturn has 3 more rings - E, F and G; all of them are weak and poorly distinguishable from the Earth, and therefore were discovered during the flights of the spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.

The rings are slightly whiter than the yellowish disk of Saturn. They are located in the plane of the planet's equator in the following order from the upper cloud layer: D, C, B, A, F, G, E. The order of the designation of the rings is due to historical reasons, so it does not coincide with the alphabetic ...

If you carefully consider the rings of Saturn, it turns out that there are, in fact, much more of them. The observed rings are separated by dark annular gaps - gaps (or divisions), where there is very little substance. The one that can be seen with a medium telescope from Earth (between rings A and B) is called the Cassini slit. On clear nights, you can see less visible gaps.

So what explains this structure of Saturn's rings? And why do Saturn have them at all? Well, let's try to answer these questions. And let's start by considering the second, because. without answering it, it is impossible to answer the first question.

The reason why Saturn at a distance of about 10 5 km has rings, and not a satellite, is tidal force. It was shown that even if a satellite had formed at such a distance, it would have been torn apart by the action of the tidal force into small fragments. In the era of the formation of giant planets, flattened clouds of protoplanetary matter arose around them at some stage, from which satellites later formed. In the zone of the rings, the tidal force prevented the formation of the satellite. Thus, the rings of Saturn are probably the remnants of pre-planetary matter, and consist of formations, the size of which can be from small grains of sand to fragments of the order of several meters.

There is another theory of the formation of rings, according to which they are the remains of some large satellites of Saturn destroyed by comets and meteorites, formed several billion years ago. Although it is possible that at present there are sources of replenishment of the rings with substance. Thus, the density of matter in the E ring increases towards the orbit of Saturn's moon Enceladus. It is possible that Enceladus is the source of matter for this ring.

The nature of the structure of the rings is apparently resonant. Thus, the Cassini division is a region of orbits in which the period of revolution of each particle around Saturn is exactly half that of the nearest large satellite of Saturn, Mimas. Because of this coincidence, Mimas, with its attraction, kind of shakes the particles moving inside the fission, and eventually ejects them from there. However, as we have said above, the rings of Saturn are more like a "gramophone record" and it is no longer possible to explain such a structure by resonances with the periods of revolution of Saturn's satellites.

Therefore, such a structure is probably the result of a mechanically unstable distribution of particles along the plane of the rings, as a result of which circular density waves arise - the observed fine structure.

The first to make such an assumption was the famous German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who explained the fine structure of Saturn's rings by the collision of particles rotating differentially around the planet according to Kepler's laws. It is the differential rotation, according to Kant, that is the reason for the stratification of the disk into a series of thin rings.

Later, the French astronomer Simon Laplace proved the instability of the two rings of Saturn, as expressed by Kant, that are visible from the Earth.

Also, having calculated the equilibrium conditions for the rings of Saturn, Laplace proved that their existence is possible only with a rapid rotation of the planet around its axis, which was later proved by the observations of V. Herschel, who drew attention to the noticeable polar contraction of Saturn.

In 1857-59. The rings of Saturn were described in his works by the Englishman Maxwell James Clerk, who showed that the existence of a ring around the planet can only be stable if it consists of a set of separate, unrelated small bodies: a continuous solid or liquid ring would be torn apart by the force of gravity of the planet .

Somewhat later, in 1885, the shape of the rings of Saturn was described by the Russian mathematician S. V. Kovalevskaya, who confirmed Maxwell's conclusion that the rings of Saturn are not a single whole, but consist of separate, small bodies.

At the end of the 19th century this theoretical conclusion of Maxwell and Kovalevskaya was empirically confirmed independently of each other by A. A. Belopolsky (Russia), J. Keeler (USA) and A. Delandre (France), who photographed the spectrum of Saturn using a slit spectrograph and based on the Doppler effect. Fizeau discovered that the outer parts of Saturn's ring rotate more slowly than the inner parts.

The measured speeds turned out to be equal to those that the satellites of Saturn would have if they were at the same distances from the planet. From this it is clear that the rings of Saturn are essentially a colossal accumulation of small solid particles that independently rotate around the planet. The particle sizes are so small that they are not visible not only in terrestrial telescopes, but also from spacecraft. Only with the help of scanning with a radio beam at a wavelength of 3.6 cm of the rings A, C and the division of Cassini, during the passage of Saturn "Voyager-1", it was possible to establish their sizes. It turned out that the average diameter of the particles of ring A is 10 meters, particles of Cassini fission - eight, and ring C - only 2 meters.

In the remaining rings of Saturn, with the exception of the B ring, the particles are much smaller in size and their number is negligible. In fact, these rings consist of dust grains with a diameter of about ten-thousandths of a mm.

I must say that the particles in ring B form strange radial formations - "spokes", located above the plane of the ring. It is possible that the "spokes" are held by the forces of electrostatic repulsion. It is curious to note that the images of the mysterious "spokes" were found on some sketches of Saturn made in the last century. But then no one gave them any importance.

In addition to the spokes, the spacecraft Voyagers discovered an unexpected effect, namely numerous short-term bursts of radio emission coming from the rings. It was nothing more than signals from electrostatic discharges - a kind of lightning. The source of the electrification of the particles, apparently, is the collision between them. A gaseous atmosphere of neutral atomic hydrogen enveloping the rings was also discovered.

According to the intensity of the Laysan-alpha line (1216 A) in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, the Voyagers calculated the number of hydrogen atoms in a cubic centimeter of the atmosphere. There were about 600...

As a result of the study of the spectrum of the rings, it also became clear that the particles of their components are apparently either covered with ice (or hoarfrost), or consist of ice, moreover, water. In the latter case, the mass of all rings can be estimated at 10 23 g, i.e. 6 orders of magnitude less than the mass of the planet itself. However, an analysis of the trajectory of the Pioneer 11 spacecraft showed that the mass of the rings is even smaller and does not even reach 1.7 millionth of the mass of Saturn.

The temperature of the rings is very low - about 80 K (-193 ° C). Particles in all rings move at almost the same speed (about 10 km/s), sometimes colliding with each other...

Within 29.5 years from the Earth, the rings of Saturn are twice visible at maximum opening and there are two periods when the Sun and the Earth are in the plane of the rings, and then the rings are illuminated by the Sun “on edge”. During this period, the rings are almost completely invisible, which indicates their very small thickness: about 1-4 (up to 20) km. Through the rings you can even see the stars, although their light is noticeably weakened.

Satellites of Saturn

Along with the ring system, Saturn also has a whole system of satellites, of which 60 are currently known.

The first satellite was discovered back in 1655 by Christian Huygens, and it was a huge Titan - the only satellite of Saturn that has a dense atmosphere, and surpasses Mercury in size.

Somewhat later - in 1671, Jean-Dominique Cassini discovered another satellite - Iapetus. A year later, he also discovers Rhea, and in 1684 - Dion and Tethys. After these discoveries, for more than a hundred years, there was no information about the new satellites of Saturn. And it seemed like it would last forever. But, in 1789, two satellites of Saturn were discovered at once by William Herschel. They were Mimas and Enceladus.

Sixty years later, namely in 1848, Hyperion was discovered, in 1898 - Phoebe. Following them - in 1966, Epitemia and Juna were discovered. After that, the number of open satellites of Saturn, due to the increased resolution of ground-based telescopes, began to grow rapidly, and by 1997, in which the launch of the Cassini spacecraft, reached 18. Cassini added four more new satellites to this number, discovered after its arrival at Saturn.

In total, to date, Saturn has 52 officially confirmed satellites, each of which has its own name. Along with them, there are other yet unconfirmed satellites that are small and have not been observed more than once. Some of them lie within the orbit of Dione, others lie between the orbits of Dione and Tethys, and still others lie between the orbits of Dione and Rhea.

All satellites, except for the huge Titan, are composed mainly of water ice, with a small admixture of rock, as indicated by their low density (about 1400-2000 kg / m 3). In the largest of them, such as Mimas, Dione, Rhea, a rocky core is formed, which by mass occupies up to 40% of the mass of the entire satellite. The structure of Titan is similar to the structure of the large satellites of Jupiter: also a solid rocky core and an icy shell.

The satellites of Saturn, as well as the satellites of other giant planets, can be divided into two groups - regular and irregular. Regular satellites move in almost circular orbits, lying close to the planet near its equatorial plane. All regular satellites turn in one direction - in the direction of rotation of the planet itself. This indicates that these satellites were formed in a gas and dust cloud that surrounded the planet during its formation. True, there are two exceptions to this rule - Iapetus and Phoebe.

In contrast, irregular satellites go far from the planet in chaotic orbits, clearly indicating that these bodies were captured by the planet from among asteroids or comet nuclei flying past it.

The regular satellites of Saturn, of which there are 18 in total, have synchronous rotation (cyclic shift), and therefore are always turned to the planet on one side. An exception to this rule is Hyperion, which has a chaotic rotation of its own, and Phoebe, which rotates in the opposite direction.

In general, we can say that each satellite of Saturn is unique, and each of them deserves attention. Take, for example, Titan - a huge satellite, whose diameter is 5150 kilometers, allows it to be considered the second largest satellite in the solar system. In addition, only Titan has a dense red-orange atmosphere, almost 600 km thick. Moreover, this atmosphere, in its composition, resembles the atmosphere of the ancient Earth, because 95% consists of nitrogen. There are traces of the presence of argon, methane, oxygen, hydrogen, ethane, propane and other gases in it. Methane, by the way, on Titan can be in all 3 states of aggregation, therefore, it is not surprising that there is a methane ocean, lakes and rivers on the satellite. Yes, and the usual, water ocean on Titan also exists, though not on the surface, but at a depth of several kilometers. This is indicated by the large variability of the details of the surface of Titan, which are observed at different times in different places.

This is possible only if we assume that there is a powerful layer of liquid water under the surface. Thus, Titan is the fifth space object within the solar system on which liquid water has been found...

No less interesting than Titan and another satellite of Saturn - Iapetus. Its front (in the direction of travel) hemisphere is very different in reflectivity from the rear. One is as bright as snow, the other is as dark as black velvet. This is due to the fact that the front of Iapetus is heavily polluted with dust, which, falling on its surface during the movement of another satellite, Phoebe, causes its strong blackening.

Phoebe is also a unique satellite, because the only one revolves around the planet in the opposite direction. In addition, its surface is very dark - the darkest among all the satellites of Saturn.

But the brightest surface is Enceladus, which, according to this indicator, is the first in the solar system (its albedo is close to 1, like freshly fallen snow). Enceladus also has the greatest tectonic and volcanic activity, and the volcanoes of Enceladus are not simple, but icy. Because of them, its surface is covered with a layer of frost, and therefore it is so bright.

Another satellite of Saturn is also very interesting - Hyperion, the only one of the large satellites that has an irregular shape caused by a collision with some massive cosmic body. It is possible, or even likely, that it is this collision that caused the chaotic rotation of Hyperion around its axis, the speed of which changes by tens of percent during the month.

From a collision with some large cosmic body, the 130-kilometer crater Herschel was formed on the surface of another satellite of Saturn - Mimas. The shaft surrounding this crater is so high that it is clearly visible even in photographs. I must say that such giant craters on the satellites of Saturn are not uncommon. So, a crater with a diameter of about 100 km was discovered on the surface of Dione, and on the surface of Rhea, the second largest satellite of Saturn, there are craters with a diameter of up to 300 km. Rhea, by the way, is also interesting because it is the only one of all satellites, and not only Saturn, that has rings. This was discovered on March 7 this year, during the flight of the Cassini spacecraft. Rhea's ring, apparently, is only one, and consists of fragmented fragments of an asteroid or comet that collided with Rhea in the distant past. The diameter of this ring is up to several thousand kilometers and it is located almost close to the satellite. An additional dust cloud can expand up to 5900 km. from the center of the satellite.

Yes, Rhea is certainly an interesting satellite, but let's get back to talking about craters. As already mentioned, 100-200 km craters on the satellites of Saturn are not uncommon, but even they are nothing compared to the Odysseus crater, 400 km in diameter, which lies on the surface of Tethys. By the way, the giant Ithaca Canyon was also discovered on this satellite, stretching for 3 thousand kilometers, which is more than the diameter of the satellite (~ 2000 km.).

But not only this is interesting Tethys. It also, as it were, "herds" two other satellites - Telesto and Calypso, located 60 ° ahead and behind Tethys. The shepherd's companion is also Dione, "grazing" Helen and Pollux. The places in space occupied by these "grazing" satellites are called Lagrangian. In a similar way, by the way, the asteroids Trojans move along with Jupiter.

Some of the satellites exert their influence on the rings of Saturn - this is the so-called. companions are shepherds. These are, for example, Prometheus and Pandora, interacting with the ring material of the ring F, and not allowing this material to go beyond the ring, or Atlas, moving at the outer edge of the ring A; it does not allow the ring particles to go beyond this edge. Ring F by the way is very unusual. So, the onboard cameras of Voyager 1 showed that the ring consists of several rings with a total width of 60 km, and two of them are intertwined with each other like a string. Such an unusual configuration is caused by the interaction of the rings with two satellites moving directly near the F ring, one at the inner edge, the other at the outer. The attraction of these satellites does not allow the extreme particles to go far from its middle - the satellites, as it were, "graze" the particles. They, as shown by calculations, cause the movement of particles along a wavy line, which creates the observed interweaving of the ring components. But Voyager 2, which passed near Saturn nine months later, did not find any interweaving or any other shape distortions in the F ring, in particular, and in the immediate vicinity of the shepherds. Thus, the shape of the ring turned out to be variable. What caused such a strange behavior of the rings is not known ...

General information about Saturn

This planet is more similar to Jupiter than other giant planets. Its mass is 95 times and the equatorial radius (60370 km) is 9.5 times greater than the earth's, and the compression is 1:10, i.e., the polar radius is 8.5 times greater than the earth's. The acceleration of gravity on Saturn is 1.15 times that of the earth, and the critical velocity is 37 km/s. The axis of rotation of the planet is tilted at an angle of 26 ° 45 ", and if it were by nature similar to the Earth and was much closer to the Sun, then the seasons of the year would change on it. But the structure of Saturn is the same as that of Jupiter, and he too rotates zonally with periods of 10h 14m (equatorial belt) and 10h 39m (temperate zones).The gaseous structure of the planet is also evidenced by its low average density, equal to 0.69 g / cm3, i.e., figuratively speaking, if Saturn was in the water, it would float on its surface.Due to the smaller (in comparison with Jupiter) mass, the pressure in the bowels of Saturn increases more slowly, and, apparently, a layer of liquid hydrogen mixed with helium begins at a depth equal to half the radius planets where the temperature reaches 10,000°C and the pressure is 3-109 hPa (3-106 atm.) Below, at a depth of 0.7-0.8 radius, there is a layer of the metallic phase of hydrogen, in which electric currents generate magnetic field of the planet, and under this layer is molten silicate a metallic core, the mass of which is 9 times the mass of the Earth, or almost 0.1 the mass of Saturn.

Saturn receives 92 times less energy from the Sun than the Earth, in addition, it reflects 45% of this energy. Therefore, the temperature of its upper layers should be about -190°C, but it is close to -170°C. This is explained by the fact that twice as much heat comes from the hot bowels of the planet as from the Sun. The radio emission of Saturn is relatively small, which indicates the presence of a magnetic field and a radiation belt weaker than that of Jupiter. This was confirmed by the Pioneer-11 automatic station, which on September 1, 1979 flew at a distance of 21,400 km from the surface of Saturn and discovered its magnetic field, the axis of which almost coincides with the axis of rotation of the planet. The radiation belt consists of several zones separated by wide cavities that do not contain electrically charged particles. Saturn has two more moons - they were photographed by the Cassini probe. The fact that such small planets (3 and 4 km in diameter) have survived to this day means that the small comets that usually threaten them are not very common in the solar system. In total, the sixth planet now has 33 satellites with diameters from 34 to 5150 km. Like Jupiter, these moons are numbered in the order in which they were discovered.

The photographs taken by automatic stations show that the surfaces of large satellites are covered with many craters of various sizes.

All satellites of Saturn revolve around it in the forward direction, and only the most distant, the ninth satellite of Phoebus, which is almost 13 million km away from the planet, has a reverse motion and completes one orbit in 550 days.
Rings of Saturn

Saturn has a ring, discovered back in 1656 by the Dutch physicist X. Huygens (1629-1695), or rather, seven thin flat concentric rings, which are separated from each other by dark gaps and revolve around the planet in the plane of its equator. The outer ring, denoted by the letter A, is less bright than the ring B separated from it by the Cassini slit, inside which there is a third ring C, which is called crepe because of its low brightness and is visible only in strong telescopes; it is separated from the ring B by the Maxwell division. The outer and inner radii of these rings are respectively 138,000 and 120,000 km (A), 116,000 and 90,000 km (B), 89,000 and 72,000 km (C).

Keeping their direction in space, the rings every 14.7 years (half of the period of Saturn's revolution around the Sun) are turned edge-on to the Earth and are not visible; only their shadow falls in a narrow dark strip on the disk of the planet. This phenomenon is called the disappearance of the rings. Their last disappearance was in 1994.

Saturn, the sixth largest planet in the solar system by distance from the Sun; astronomical sign ћ S. refers to the number of giant planets. The semi-major axis of S.'s orbit (its average distance from the Sun) is 9.54 AU. e., or 1.43 billion km. The eccentricity of the orbit is C. 0.056 (the largest among the giant planets). The angle of inclination of the plane of S.'s orbit to the plane of the ecliptic is 2°29'. S. makes a complete revolution around the Sun (sidereal period of revolution) in 29.458 years with an average speed of 9.64 km / s. The synodic circulation period is 378.09 days. In the sky, S. looks like a yellowish star, the brightness of which varies from zero to the first magnitude (in the middle opposition). The great variability of brightness is associated with the existence of rings around S.; the angle between the plane of the rings and the direction to the Earth varies from 0 to 28 °, and the earthly observer sees the rings at different angles, which determines the change in the brightness of C. The visible disk of C. has the shape of an ellipse with axes 20.7 ”and 14.7 ” (in the middle confrontation). In superior conjunction with the Sun, the apparent dimensions of the Sun are 25% smaller, and the brightness is 0.48 magnitudes weaker. The visual albedo of S. is 0.69.

The ellipticity of S.'s disk reflects its spheroidal shape, which is a consequence of S.'s rapid rotation: the period of its rotation around its axis is 10 hours and 14 minutes at the equator, 10 hours and 38 minutes at moderate latitudes, and 10 hours and 40 minutes at a latitude of about 60 °. S.'s axis of rotation is inclined to the plane of its orbit by 63°36'. In a linear measure, the equatorial radius of S. is 60,100 km, the polar one is 54,600 km (an accuracy of about 1%), and the compression is 1:10.2. The volume of sunlight exceeds the volume of the Earth by 770 times, and the mass of solar is 95.28 times greater than that of the earth (5.68 × 10226 kg), so that the average density of solar is 0.7 g/cm3, which is half the density of the Sun. With respect to the Sun, the mass of S. is 1:3499. The acceleration of gravity on the surface of S. at the equator is 9.54 m/sec2. The parabolic velocity (escape velocity) on the surface of S. reaches 37 km/sec.

Little detail is visible on the C. disk, even when viewed under the best conditions. Only light and dark bands parallel to the equator are visible, on which dark or light spots are occasionally superimposed, with the help of which the rotation of C is determined.

The surface temperature of S., according to measurements of the heat flux emanating from the planet in the infrared region of the spectrum, is determined from -190 to -150 ° C (which is higher than the equilibrium temperature of - 193 ° C), corresponding to the heat flux received from the Sun. This indicates that in the thermal radiation of S. there is a share of its own deep heat, which is also confirmed by measurements of radio emission.

The difference in the angular velocities of solar rotation at different latitudes indicates that its surface, observed from the Earth, is only the upper cloudy layer of the atmosphere. On the internal structure of S., one can get some idea on the basis of theoretical studies. The observed perturbations in the movement of S.'s satellites, when compared with the compression of its figure and the average density, make it possible to determine the approximate course of pressure and density in the bowels of S. (see Planets). The very low average density of S. indicates that, like other giant planets, it consists mainly of light gases - hydrogen and helium, which also predominate on the Sun. Presumably, the composition of solarium includes hydrogen (80%), helium (18%), and only 2% of heavier elements concentrated in the planet's core. Hydrogen to depths of about half the radius is in the molecular phase, and deeper, under the influence of colossal pressures, it passes into the metallic phase. In the center of S., the temperature is close to 20,000 K.

The chemical composition of the atmosphere above the solar cloud layer is determined from the absorption lines in the spectrum of the planet. The main part of it is molecular hydrogen (40 km-atm), methane CH4 (0.35 km-atm) is definitely present, the existence of ammonia (NH3) is assumed, although it is possible that it is present in the form of aerosols in clouds. There are grounds for assuming that in the atmosphere of S. there is helium, which does not manifest itself spectroscopically in the region of the spectrum accessible to us. The magnetic field at S. is not revealed.

A remarkable feature of the planet are the rings of Saturn - concentric formations of different brightness, as if nested into each other, and forming a single flat system of small thickness, located in the equatorial plane C. The ring around C. was first observed by G. Galileo in 1610, but due to low as a telescope, he took the parts of the ring visible at the edges of the planet as satellites of C. The correct description of the C. ring was given by H. Huygens (1659), and J. Cassini soon showed that it consists of two concentric components - rings A and B, separated by a dark gap (so-called Cassini division). Much later (in 1850), the American astronomer W. Bond discovered an inner faintly luminous ring (C), and in 1969 an even weaker and closer to the planet ring D was discovered. The brightness of the D ring does not exceed 1/20 of the brightness of the brightest ring - ring B The rings are located at the following distances from the planet: A - from 138 to 120 thousand km, B - from 116 to 90 thousand km, C - from 89 to 75 thousand km and D - from 71 thousand km almost to the surface C .

The nature of solar rings became clear after the English physicist J. Maxwell (in 1859) and the Russian mathematician S. V. Kovalevskaya (in 1885) proved by various methods that the existence of a ring around a planet can be stable only if it consists of a collection of individual small bodies: a continuous solid or liquid ring would be torn apart by the planet's gravity.

This theoretical conclusion at the end of the 19th century. was empirically confirmed independently by A. A. Belopolsky (Russia), J. Keeler (USA) and A. Delandre (France), who photographed the spectrum of S. using a slit spectrograph and, based on the Doppler-Fisot effect, found that external parts of the S. ring rotate more slowly than the inner ones. The measured speeds turned out to be equal to those that S.'s satellites would have if they were at the same distances from the planet.

Within 29.5 years from the Earth, the rings of S. are twice visible at maximum opening and there are two periods when the Sun and the Earth are in the plane of the rings, and then the rings are either illuminated by the Sun “on edge”, or it is visible to an earthly observer “on edge” ". During this period, the rings are almost completely invisible, which indicates their very small thickness. Various researchers, based on visual and photometric observations and their theoretical processing, come to the conclusion that the average thickness of the rings is from 10 cm to 10 km. Of course, it is impossible to see a ring of such thickness from the Earth "on edge". The sizes of solid bodies in the rings are estimated from 10-1 to 103 cm with the predominance of blocks with a diameter of about 1 m, which is also confirmed by the observed reflection of radio waves from C rings.

The chemical composition of the substance of the rings, apparently, is the same for all four components, only the degree of filling the space with lumps is different in them. The spectrum of S.'s rings is significantly different from the spectrum of S. itself and the Sun that illuminates them; the spectrum indicates an increased reflectivity of the rings in the near infrared region (2.1 and 1.5 µm), which corresponds to reflection from H2O ice. It can be assumed that the bodies that form the rings of S. are either covered with ice or hoarfrost, or consist of ice. In the latter case, the mass of all rings can be estimated at 1024 g, i.e., 5 orders of magnitude less than the mass of the planet itself. The temperature of the rings of S., apparently, is close to equilibrium, i.e., to 80 K.

S. has ten satellites. One of them - Titan - has dimensions comparable to the size of the planets; its diameter is 5,000 km, its mass is 2.4 × 10-4 C masses, and it has an atmosphere containing methane. The closest satellite to the planet is Janus, discovered in 1966: it revolves around the planet in 18 hours, at an average distance of 160 thousand km; its diameter is about 220 km. The most distant satellite is Phoebe; revolves around S. in the opposite direction at a distance of about 13 million km (see Satellites of the Planets).

The universe is full of mysteries, as evidenced by interesting facts about the planet Saturn- a celestial body named after the longtime lord of the titans - Kronos.

1. The planet is shaped like an oblate ball.. Saturn acquired this shape as a result of rapid rotation around its axis. A day here lasts only 10.7 hours. Due to such intense rotation, the planet flattens itself.
2. The celestial body has a huge number of satellites (63). Scientists say that some of them have the necessary conditions for life.
3. Saturn has a developed system of rings, each of which has a bright and dark side.. However, the inhabitants of the Earth have the ability to see an exceptionally bright side. From our planet, the rings seem to disappear from time to time. This is due to the fact that only the edges of the rings are visible under the slope. According to current theories, the rings were formed as a result of the destruction of Saturn's moons.
4. If you fantasize that the Sun is the size of a front door, then Saturn will resemble a basketball.. In this case, the Earth will be the size of an ordinary coin.
5. The planet is mostly made up of helium and hydrogen gases.. It has almost no hard surface.
6. If you put Saturn in water, he can float on it like a ball.. This is possible, since the density of the planet is 2 times less than that of water.
7. All rings have names that correspond to the letters of the Latin alphabet. They received their names in the order in which they were discovered.
8. Scientists around the world are actively studying Saturn. So far, 5 missions have been there. The first spacecraft visited this site in 1979. Since 2004, the study of the features of a celestial body has been carried out using a spacecraft called Cassini.
9. 40% of all satellites in the universe revolve around Saturn. Among them there are both regular and irregular satellites. The orbits of the former are quite close to the planet, the rest are located far away. They were captured recently. Phoebe's moon is the farthest from the planet.
10. Astronomers put forward a hypothesis according to which Saturn influenced the structure of the solar system. Due to the action of its gravity, the planet managed to throw aside Uranus and Neptune. However, so far this is only an assumption for which evidence needs to be found.
11. The pressure of the atmosphere of the planet Saturn exceeds the earth's by 3 million times. At this gas planet, hydrogen is compressed into a liquid and then a solid state. If a person gets there, he will immediately be flattened by the pressure of the atmosphere.
12. The planet has northern lights. It was taken by a spacecraft near the north pole. A similar phenomenon could not be detected on any other planet.
13. Bad weather constantly rages on Saturn. There is a strong wind blowing, which sometimes turns into a hurricane. Local hurricanes are similar in their flow to the earth. Only they appear much more often. During hurricanes, giant spots are formed that resemble funnels. They can be seen from space.
14. Saturn is considered the most beautiful planet. The beauty of Saturn is provided by the delicate blue color of the surface, bright rings. By the way, you can see this celestial body from Earth without any optical instruments. The brightest star in the sky is Saturn.
15. The planet radiates 2 times more energy than it receives from the Sun. Due to the remoteness of the location, a very small flow of solar energy reaches Saturn. It is 91 times less than the Earth receives. At the lower boundary of the planet's clouds, the air temperature is only 150K. According to scientific hypotheses, the source of internal energy can be the energy released as a result of the gravitational differentiation of helium.

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In honor of the Roman God, who was in charge of agriculture, the amazing and mysterious planet Saturn was named. People strive to study every planet to perfection, including Saturn. After Jupiter, Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system. Even with a regular telescope, you can easily see this amazing planet. Hydrogen and helium are the main constituent elements of the planet. That is why life on the planet is for those who breathe oxygen. Next, we suggest reading more interesting facts about the planet Saturn.

1. On Saturn, as well as on the planet Earth, there are seasons.

2. One "season" on Saturn lasts more than 7 years.

3. The planet Saturn is an oblate ball. The fact is that Saturn rotates around its axis so quickly that it flattens itself.

4. Saturn is considered the planet with the lowest density in the entire solar system.

5. The density of Saturn is only 0.687 g/cm3, while the Earth has a density of 5.52 g/cm3.

6. The number of satellites of the planet is 63.

7. Many ancient astronomers believed that the rings of Saturn were its satellites. Galileo was the first to speak about this.

8. The rings of Saturn were first discovered in 1610.

9. Spaceships have visited Saturn only 4 times.

10. It is still unknown how long a day lasts on this planet, however, many assume that it is just over 10 hours.

11. One year on this planet is equal to 30 years on Earth

12. When the seasons change, the planet changes its color.

13. The rings of Saturn sometimes disappear. The fact is that under the slope you can see only the edges of the rings, which are difficult to notice.

14. Saturn can be seen through a telescope.

15. Scientists have not decided when Saturn's rings formed.

16. Saturn's rings have bright and dark sides. At the same time, only the bright sides can be seen from the Earth.

17. Saturn is recognized as the 2nd largest planet in the solar system.

18. Saturn is considered the 6th planet from the Sun.

19. Saturn has its own symbol - the sickle.

20. Saturn consists of water, hydrogen, helium, methane.

21. Saturn's magnetic field extends over 1 million kilometers.

22. The rings of this planet are made up of pieces of ice and dust.

23. Today, the Kasain interplanetary station is in orbit around Saturn.

24. This planet is mostly composed of gases and has virtually no solid surface.

25. The mass of Saturn exceeds the mass of our planet by more than 95 times.

26. In order to get from Saturn to the Sun, you need to overcome 1430 million km.

27. Saturn is the only planet that rotates around its axis faster than around its orbit.

28. The wind speed on this planet sometimes reaches 1800 km / h.

29. This is the most windy planet, because this is due to its rapid rotation and internal heat.

30. Saturn is recognized as the complete opposite of our planet.

31. Saturn has its core, which consists of iron, ice and nickel.

32. The rings of this planet do not exceed a kilometer in thickness.

33. If you lower Saturn into water, he will be able to swim on it, because its density is 2 times lower than water.

34. Aurora borealis was discovered on Saturn.

35. The name of the planet comes from the name of the Roman god of agriculture.

36. The planet's rings reflect more light than its disk.

37. The shape of the clouds above this planet resembles a hexagon.

38. The tilt of the axis of Saturn is similar to the Earth.

39. At the north pole of Saturn there are strange clouds that resemble a black whirlwind.

40. Saturn has a moon Titan, which, in turn, has been recognized as the second largest in the universe.

41. The names of the rings of the planet are named alphabetically, and in the order in which they were discovered.

42. Rings A, B and C are recognized as the main rings.

43. The first spacecraft visited the planet in 1979.

44. One of the satellites of this planet, Iapetus, has an interesting structure. On one side it has the color of black velvet, the other side is white as snow.

45. Saturn was first mentioned in literature in 1752 by Voltaire.

47. The total width of the rings is 137 million kilometers.

48. Saturn's moons are mostly ice.

49. There are 2 types of satellites of this planet - regular and irregular.

50. There are only 23 regular satellites today, and they orbit around Saturn.

51. Irregular satellites rotate in elongated orbits of the planet.

52. Some scientists believe that irregular satellites were captured by this planet quite recently, as they are located far from it.

53. Satellite Iapetus is the very first and oldest related to this planet.

54. Satellite Tethys is distinguished by huge craters.

55. Saturn was recognized as the most beautiful planet in the solar system.

56. Some astronomers suggest that life exists on one of the planet's moons (Enceladus).

57. On the moon Enceladus, a source of light, water and organic matter was found.

58. It is believed that more than 40% of the satellites of the solar system revolve around this planet.

59. It is believed that it was formed more than 4.6 billion years ago.

60. In 1990, scientists observed the largest storm in the entire universe, which just happened on Saturn and is known as the Great White Oval.

The structure of the gas giant

61. Saturn is recognized as the lightest planet in the entire solar system.

62. The indicators of gravity on Saturn and Earth are different. For example, if on Earth the mass of a person is 80 kg, then on Saturn it will be 72.8 kg.

63. The temperature of the upper layer of the planet is -150 °C.

64. In the core of the planet, the temperature reaches 11700 ° C.

65. The closest neighbor for Saturn is Jupiter.

66. The force of gravity on this planet is 2, while on Earth it is 1.

67. The most distant satellite from Saturn is Phoebe and is located at a distance of 12952000 kilometers.

68. Herschel single-handedly discovered 2 satellites of Saturn at once: Mimmas and Ezelades in 1789.

69. Cassaini immediately discovered 4 satellites of this planet: Iapetus, Rhea, Tethys and Dione.

70. Every 14-15 years you can see the edges of the rings of Saturn due to the inclination of the orbit.

71. In addition to rings, it is customary in astronomy to separate gaps between them, which also have names.

72. It is customary, in addition to the main rings, to separate also those that consist of dust.

73. In 2004, when Cassini first flew between the F and G rings, it received over 100,000 micrometeor impacts.

74. According to the new model, the rings of Saturn were formed as a result of the destruction of satellites.

75. The youngest satellite of Saturn is Helena.

Photo of the famous, strongest, hexagonal vortex on the planet Saturn. Photo from the Cassini spacecraft at an altitude of approximately 3000 km. from the surface of the planet.

76. The first spacecraft to visit Saturn was Pioneer 11, followed by Voyager 1 a year later, Voyager 2.

77. In Indian astronomy, Saturn is usually called Shani as one of the 9 celestial bodies.

78. The rings of Saturn in Isaac Asimov's story called "The Way of the Martians" become the main source of water for the Martian colony.

79. Saturn was also involved in the Japanese cartoon "Sailor Moon", the planet Saturn personifies the girl warrior of death and rebirth.

80. The weight of the planet is 568.46 x 1024 kg.

81. When translating Galileo's conclusions about Saturn, Kepler made a mistake and decided that he discovered 2 satellites of Mars instead of the rings of Saturn. The embarrassment was resolved after just 250 years.

82. The total mass of the rings is estimated at approximately 3 × 1019 kilograms.

83. The speed of movement in orbit is 9.69 km / s.

84. The maximum distance from Saturn to the Earth is only 1.6585 billion km, while the minimum is 1.1955 billion km.

85. The first cosmic speed of the planet is 35.5 km / s.

86. Such planets as Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, like Saturn, have rings. However, all scientists and astronomers agreed that only the rings of Saturn are unusual.

87. Interestingly, the word Saturn in English has the same root as the word Saturday.

88. The yellow and golden stripes that can be seen on the planet are the result of the action of constant winds.

90. Today, the most heated and zealous disputes between scientists happen precisely because of the hexagon that arose on the surface of Saturn.

91. Repeatedly, many scientists have proven that the core of Saturn is much larger and more massive than the earth, however, the exact numbers have not yet been established.

92. Not so long ago, scientists found that needles seem to be stuck in the rings. However, later it turned out that these are just layers of particles charged with electricity.

93. The size of the polar radius on the planet Saturn is about 54364 km.

94. The equatorial radius of the planet is 60,268 km.

In our solar system there are a lot of amazing space objects, the interest in which is not waning. One of these objects is Saturn, the sixth planet of the solar system, the most amazing and unusual celestial body located in outer space closest to us. The huge size, the presence of wonderful rings, other interesting facts and features that the sixth planet has make it the object of close attention of astrophysicists.

Discovery of a ringed planet

Saturn, like its neighbor, the huge Jupiter, is one of the largest objects in the solar system. Man began to collect the first information about the beautiful planet back in the era of ancient civilizations. The Egyptians, Persians and ancient Greeks personified Saturn with the supreme deity, endowing the yellowish star in the night sky with mystical power. The ancient peoples attached great importance to this planet, creating and shaping the first calendars on it.

In the era of Ancient Rome, the worship of Saturn reached its climax, initiating the Saturnalia - the holidays of agriculture. Over time, the worship of Saturn became a whole trend in the culture of the ancient Romans.

The first scientific facts about the planet Saturn come at the end of the 16th century. This is the great merit of Galileo Galilei. It was he who for the first time, using his imperfect telescope, placed Saturn among the objects of our solar system. The only thing that the illustrious astronomer failed to do was discover the planet's charming rings. The decoration of the planet in the form of huge rings, three or four times the diameter of the planet itself, was discovered in 1610 by the Dutch astrophysicist Christian Huygens.

Only in the modern era, when more powerful ground-based telescopes appeared, did the scientific community manage to fully examine the wonderful rings and discover other interesting facts about the planet Saturn.

A brief excursion into the history of the planet

The sixth planet in the solar system is one of the same gas giants as Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. Unlike the terrestrial planets of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, these are real giants, celestial bodies of huge gaseous structure. No wonder scientists consider Saturn and Jupiter to be related planets, with a similar composition of the atmosphere and astrophysical parameters.

Due to its surroundings, represented by a whole cohort of large and small satellites, huge and bright rings, the planet is considered the most recognizable in the solar system. However, despite this, it is this planet that has been studied the least. The description of the planet today is reduced to the usual and mean static data, including the size, mass, density of the celestial body. No less scarce information about the composition of the planet's atmosphere and its geomagnetic field. The surface of Saturn, hidden by dense gas clouds, is generally considered a dark spot in science for astrophysicists.

What do we know about Saturn today? In the night sky, this planet appears quite often and is a bright star of pale yellow color. During oppositions, this celestial body looks like a star with a brightness of 0.2-0.3m magnitude.

The relatively high brightness of the planet is due rather to the large size of the planet. Saturn has a diameter of 116,464 thousand km, which is 9.5 times the parameters of the Earth. The ringed giant looks like an egg, elongated at the poles and flattened in the equatorial region. The average radius of the planet is just over 58 thousand km. Together with the rings, the diameter of Saturn is 270 thousand km. The mass is equal to 568,360,000 trillion trillion kg.

Saturn is 95 times heavier than Earth and is the second largest space object in the solar system after Jupiter. At the same time, the density of this monster is only 0.687 g/cm3. For comparison, the density of our blue planet is 5.51 g/cm³. In other words, a huge gas planet is lighter than water, and if you put Saturn in a huge pool of water, it would stay on the surface.

Saturn has an area of ​​over 42 billion square meters. kilometers, exceeding the area of ​​the earth's surface by 87 times. The volume of the gas giant is 827.13 trillion. cubic kilometers.

Curious data on the orbital position of the planet. Saturn is 10 times farther from the Sun than our planet. Sunlight reaches the surface of the ringed planet in 1 hour and 20 minutes. The orbit has the third largest eccentricity, second only to Mercury and Mars in this indicator. The orbit of the planet is distinguished by a small difference between aphelion and perihelion, which is 1.54x108 km. Saturn's maximum distance from the Sun is 1513,783 km. The minimum distance of Saturn from the Sun is 1353600 km.

The astrophysical characteristics of the planet in comparison with other celestial objects of the solar system are quite interesting. The orbital speed of the planet is 9.6 km/s. A complete revolution around our central luminary takes less than 30 years for Saturn. At the same time, the speed of rotation of the planet around its own axis is much higher than that of the Earth. Saturn's rotation around its own axis can be 10 hours and 33 minutes, versus 24 hours for our world. In other words, a Saturnian day is much shorter than an Earth day, but a year on a ringed planet will last as much as 24,491 Earth days. The nearest planets to Saturn - Jupiter and Uranus - rotate around their own axis much more slowly.

A characteristic feature of the position of the planet and the speed of rotation around its own axis is the presence of seasons. The axis of rotation of the ringed giant is inclined to the orbital plane at the same angle as the Earth. There are also seasons on Saturn, only they last much longer: spring, summer, autumn and winter last on Saturn for almost 7 years.

The giant is located at an average distance of 1.28 billion kilometers from the Earth. During periods of opposition, Saturn is closest to our world at a distance of 1.20 billion kilometers.

With such huge distances, it will take a long time to fly to the ringed gas giant with the current technical capabilities. The first automatic probe "Pioneer-11" flew to Saturn for more than 6 years. Another space hulk, the Voyager 1 probe took over 3 years to reach the gas giant. The most famous spacecraft "Cassini" flew to Saturn for 7 years. The latest achievement of mankind in the field of study and exploration of outer space in the region of Saturn was the flight of the automatic probe "New Horizons". This apparatus reached the region of the rings after 2 years and 4 months from the date of launch at the Cape Canaveral launch site.

Characteristics and composition of the planet's atmosphere

In its structure, the second largest planet in the solar system is very similar to Jupiter. The gas giant consists of three layers. The first, innermost layer is a dense massive core consisting of silicates and metal. In terms of mass, the core of Saturn is 20 times heavier than our planet. The temperature in the center of the core reaches 10-11 thousand degrees Celsius. This is due to the colossal pressure in the inner regions of the planet, which reaches 3 million atmospheres. The combination of high temperature and enormous pressure leads to the fact that the planet itself is able to radiate energy into the surrounding space. Saturn gives off 2.5 times more energy than it receives from our star.

Scientists believe that the diameter of the core is 25 thousand kilometers. If you go higher, after the core begins a layer of metallic hydrogen. Its thickness varies within 30-40 thousand km. Behind the layer of metallic hydrogen begins the uppermost layer, the so-called surface of the planet, filled with hydrogen and helium in a semi-liquid state. The layer of molecular hydrogen on Saturn is only 12 thousand km. Like other gas planets of the solar system, Saturn does not have a clear boundary between the atmosphere and the surface of the planet. A huge amount of hydrogen creates an intense circulation of electrical currents, which, together with the planet's magnetic axis, form the magnetic field of Saturn. It should be noted that the magnetic shell of Saturn is inferior in strength to the magnetic field of Jupiter.

According to the composition of the atmosphere, the sixth planet of the solar system is 96% hydrogen. Only 4% is helium. The thickness of the atmospheric layer on Saturn is only 60 km, but the main feature of the Saturnian atmosphere is different. The high speed of the planet's rotation around its own axis and the presence of a huge amount of hydrogen in the atmosphere causes the gaseous envelope to separate into bands. Clouds are also mostly composed of molecular hydrogen diluted with methane and helium. The planet's high rate of rotation contributes to the formation of bands that appear thinner in the polar regions and widen considerably as they approach the planet's equator.

Scientists believe that the presence of bands in the Saturnian atmosphere indicates a high speed of movement of gas masses. This planet has the strongest winds in the entire solar system. According to data received from the Cassini, the wind speed in the atmosphere of Saturn reaches values ​​of 1800 km/h.

Rings of Saturn and its moons

The most remarkable object in terms of studying the sixth planet of the solar system are its rings. The moons of Saturn are of no less interest due to their huge size and the presence of a solid surface.

The rings of the gas giant are a huge accumulation of space debris that has accumulated in the regions of Saturn over many billions of years. Ice and stone fragments of cosmic matter form 7 large rings of various widths, separated by 4 slits. All rings of Saturn were designated in Latin letters: A, B, C, D, E, F and G. The slots have the following names:

• Maxwell slit;
• shell Cassini;
• Enkea gap;
• Keeler's gap.

Due to the presence of a huge amount of cosmic ice in the structure of the rings, these formations are clearly visible in a powerful telescope. Armed with telescopes with a Go-To mount, only two of the largest rings of Saturn can be observed from Earth.

As for the satellites of Saturn, this gas giant has no competitors among the currently known celestial bodies. Officially, the planet has 62 satellites, among which the largest objects stand out. The second largest natural satellite in the solar system, Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury, has a diameter of 5150 km. and larger than Mercury. Unlike its host, Titan has a dense nitrogen atmosphere.

However, it is not Titan that interests scientists today. Enceladus, the sixth largest moon of Saturn, turned out to be a celestial body, on the surface of which traces of water were found. This fact was first discovered thanks to the pictures of the Hubble telescope and was confirmed as a result of the flight of the Cassini space probe. On Enceladus, spouting geysers, vast areas of the surface covered with a layer of ice, were discovered. The presence of water in the geological structure of this satellite leads scientists to believe that the solar system may have other forms of life.

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