Science Solar System Project

8/9/2019 Science Solar System Project

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Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun. It is also the second largest planet in the solarsystem, over 120, 000 km across. The rings of Saturn, clearly visible from earth through atelescope, makes it the most spectacular planet of all. For centuries Saturn was thefurthest known planet, until the discovery of Uranus, Neptune and tiny Pluto.Like Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune Saturn is also a gas giant. These planets don t havesolid surfaces like Earth does. A gas giant is a gigantic planet that doesn t have any rockysurfaces. Gas giants are mostly made out of liquid and gases. All 4 gas giants are madeout of hydrogen and helium with small amounts of other ices such as methane, ammoniaand water ice.The Roman s have named many planets as gods. The Roman s named Saturn the God of Agriculture.


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Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system and is sixth in line from the sun. LikeJupiter, Uranus and Neptune; Saturn is also a gas giant. These planets don t have solid surfaceslike Earth. A gas giant is a huge planet that doesn t have a solid surface. Gas giants are madeout of liquids and gases. Jupiter and Saturn is mostly made out of hydrogen and helium withsmall amounts of other ices such as methane, ammonia and water ice. Whereas Neptune andUranus is mostly made out of these other ices.

Saturn is the least dense planet out of the whole of the solar system, its specific gravity (0.7) isless than of water. The planet is so light it could float on water, but there is no sea big enough.

The internal structure of Saturn is very similar to Jupiter, it has a small rocky core and surroundedmostly by liquid molecules of hydrogen and helium. The core is very alike to earth except muchmore dense. Above this, there is a thicker liquid metallic hydrogen layer, followed by a layer of hydrogen and helium. In the outer layer there is a gaseous atmosphere. Saturn has a boiling hotinterior about 11, 700 degree Celsius at the core. It radiates more energy into space than itreceives from the sun.Saturn is about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium.


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Saturn s structureSaturn is 10 times wider than Earth and its mass is 100 times greater than Earth.However its density is much less than Earth because Saturn is mostly made out of hydrogen, which is the lightest chemical there is. Saturn is the least dense planet in

the whole of the solar system, its specific gravity (0.7) is less than of water. This planetis so light it could float on water, but there is no sea big enough.Saturn has a core mostly made of iron, which is larger than the Earth. Around the coreis a layer of metallic hydrogen. The high pressure inside the planet makes hydrogenact like a liquid metal such as mercury. On top of this layer is a layer of hydrogenliquid. Around the liquid layer is an atmosphere mostly made of hydrogen but withhelium as well.


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Saturn has cloud bands in it s atmosphere but they re pale faded orange. This orange colouris because Saturn has sulphur in its atmosphere. There is also nitrogen and oxygen in theplanets atmosphere. These atoms mix together into molecules at Earth.Saturn also has the highest and fastest speed winds that race around Saturn. These windsare going as quick as 1800 km/h at the equator. There are humongous storm winds that formwithin the bands that circle the planet. The atmosphere is mainly hydrogen and helium. Ithas cloud layers that are of water ice vapour, ammonia crystals these are all dark orange incolour.

The bands in saturn s atmosphere are loads of gases coursing around the planet at highspeeds. These are all in opposite directions. At the boundary between these gases, theatmosphere gets churned up and furious storms break out.


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Saturn s atmosphere of hydrogen is about 400km thick. There are bands of cloudsthat move around the planet in different directions, blown by winds of up to 1,800km/h. Sometimes humongous storms winds form due to the clouds. They areseen as white spots as the clouds are made up of ammonia ice. The temperatureat the top of the atmosphere is -180 degree Celsius.There have been some missions to saturn consequently it hasn t been by a humanbeing. This is because the surface isn t solid therefore you can t land on theplanet. Instead astronomers send a space probe on a parachute to find out whatSaturn's atmosphere is like. The space probe receives data from Saturn and sendsto the astronomers. Saturn is surrounded by a strong magnetic field and a deadlyradiation. The radiation is caused by the solar wind. This is lots of electricallycharged particles that come out of the sun and go through space. Saturn smagnetic field traps particles from the solar wind, this causes the deadly radiation.


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Facts about SaturnFacts about Saturn

Saturn s years and days.Saturn s years and days are so much different to Earth s. Saturn spins so quicklythat it s day is less than half a day on Earth. You can t spend a day on Saturndue to it s surface so you would have to fly around Saturn to find out what a dayand night is like. As on earth the day and night temperature changes on Saturn

it hardly changes. It is about -180 degree Celsius this is because the heat insideSaturn n keeps the temperature steady.

A day on Saturn is about 10 hours and 40 minutes. A year on Saturn is about 29Earth years and 6 months.

Saturn s distance from the sunThe sun is a gigantic star at the centre of the solar system. All the planets,asteroids, comets and dust orbit the sun. Saturn is the sixth planet from thesun. The distance from the sun is about 1,433billion km( 887 million miles).


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The planet Saturn has loads of moons. It has a total of 60 moons that wereonly discovered in these last few years, 50 of them have names but the rest of them don t. All of these moons vary in sizes from small rocks to a fewkilometres wide. Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is bigger than Mercury andPluto. It also has its own atmosphere. The closest moons orbiting Saturn arecalled shepherd moons. The shepherd moons are strangely shaped lumps of ice. Astronomers have named some of them such as: Pan, Atlas, Janus,Epimetheus, Pandora and Prometheus. These are the moons that are veryclose to Saturn's rings. Beyond the rings are larger moons. Larger moonsseem to come in pairs: Mimas and Enceladus are close together for moons

that's why they are called pairs.Icy moons have bright and reflective surfaces this means that they must bemade out of rock and ice. Unlike Titan, these moons are not large enough tohave an atmosphere. Some of these moons are called Tethys, Dione andRhea. These moons have heat generated by radioactive chemicals, this mighthave warmed up their interiors enough to melt the ice. This ice erupted onto

the surfaces; this meant that the craters would be covered up.


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Titan and mimas both very well known moons. Mimas was discovered in 1789 byHerschel. This moon has a low density, this tells us that it is mostly made out of iceand small rocks. The surface of mimas is dominated by an impact crater, about130km across. Mimas looks like the death star in star wars movies.

Titan is the largest moons that orbit Saturn, the clouds on Saturn are orange. . Thismoon is even larger than Mercury and Pluto. Strangely this moon has anatmosphere. Like saturn which was discovered by Galileo and Christiaan Huygens.At the surface of saturn, its pressure is 50% higher than Earths. Titan is about half water ice and half rocky material. Titan has no magnetic field and sometimesorbits outside Saturn s magnetic field. Therefore it is exposed to solar winds.


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The discovery of Saturn and discovererSaturn was known since pre-historic times. Galileo was the first to observe it in 1610;he was confused by its odd appearance. The appearance was odd due to the ringsangle and the orbit of Saturn.

Galileo was an Italian astronomer who was the first person to see Saturn's strange,lumpy shape.The mystery of Saturn was finally solved around 1655 by a Dutch astronomer calledChristiaan Huygens. His ring theory was proved correct when others seen the shadowthe rings had caused on Saturn. Shortly after, Gian Domenico Cassini discovered thedivision in the rings. Huygens and Cassini also found the first of Saturn s moons.The first person to see Saturn s rings was galileo. In 1610, he saw the rings through hissmall homemade telescope. He thought they looked like ears. But later in the samecentury, other astronomers used better developed telescopes and identified the earswere actually rings. They also found out that all gas giants have rings. Unlike all of thegas giants Saturn s are far by the largest. The icy chunks of what the rings are madeof reflect sunlight very well, this makes them the brightest too.


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Saturn s ringsSaturn s most spectacular feature is its rings. They are made out of billions of chunks of ice that orbit the planet. The ice reflects the light from the sun makingthe rings very bright. From the inner edge to the outer edge the rings cover morethan 400,000km. This is further than the distance from Earth to the moon. Saturnhas 7 main rings. Each ring has its own density that has large and small particles.This is why the rings look a bit different to each other. The rings are very thincompared to its width. Some of the rings are made up of thousands of millions of thin rings known as ringlets.Saturn s axis is tilted in space of about 27 degrees. Therefore the rings are atdifferent angles during its orbit around the sun. The best time for viewing saturnare when the planets tilt it pointing towards us. Sometimes the rings side on, sothat the rings are completely edge on. This means the rings look very thin so youcan hardly see them so the disappear.

Astronomers have named the rings using the alphabet. The closest ring to Jupiter iscalled D ring. The inner edge is C, B and A rings( are the brightest). The next ring isvery thin and is called F rings which is followed by G ring. Abbie Watkins s number:07504130909


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