Interesting Facts about Saturn

Saturn is the second largest planets in our solar system. Saturn is yellowish in color and is named after Saturnus, a Roman God of harvest and agriculture. With a diameter of around 74,898 miles; more than nine earths when arranged in a straight line, would fit in Saturn. In terms of distance, it is sixth from the Sun (around 890 million miles). The speed of wind on Saturn can reach up to 1800 km/h. The planet takes 10 hours and 39 minutes to complete a single rotation. Sunlight on Saturn is 1% brighter as compared to that on our planet Earth. The day of the week, Saturday, derives its name from Saturn.

Interesting Facts about Saturn

How many moons and rings does Saturn have? It still remains a mystery; as information on their specific numbers is still not known clearly to man. Let's take a quick glimpse at some interesting facts about Saturn.

Discovery: Galileo Galilei, who was an astronomer, discovered Saturn in 1610; but didn't understand because of the rings that were around it. He thought that the rings were actually moons on the sides of Saturn. He saw the rings appearing and disappearing in time, which confused him. It was due to the tilt and the thinness of the rings that made them nearly invisible. Later in 1655, Christiaan Huygens, who was a Dutch astronomer, discovered that there were rings around this planet.

Composition: People think of Saturn as a solid planet like the Earth or Mars. But it is not so; even though, it has a core that consists of rock and ice. The outer layers of the core are surrounded by a very thick layer of different gases. Around 97% of Saturn consists of hydrogen, 2.5% helium, and the rest is filled with ammonia, methane, ethane, phosphine, rocks, ice, etc. The temperature on Saturn is around -180 degrees Celsius.

Rings of Saturn: Rings are the beauty of Saturn, and can be seen even with a small telescope, though, it would show only three rings. A larger telescope is required to enable us to see all the rings more clearly. The rings of Saturn are around 150,000 miles in diameter and are made up of small pieces of rock, ice and dust.

Least Dense Planet: Saturn is the least dense among all known planets; having a weight of 0.687 g/cm, which is in fact even lighter than water. It means that it would float, if placed in a water body of a size bigger than itself.

Moons of Saturn: Saturn has 60 known moons, and there are many more yet to be discovered. Titan is the largest of Saturn's moons, and is larger than Mercury and Pluto. Titan is also the second largest moon in the solar system.

Visible to the Naked Eye: It's the farthest planet that can be seen without using a telescope. Though, you would not be able to see its rings, but the planet itself can be seen like a bright star in the sky.

Flattened at the Poles: The rotational speed of Saturn is so fast, that it is flattened at the poles. The distance from the center to the poles is more than that from the center to the equator. This results in the planet being a little oval in shape.

Missions to Saturn: There were four spacecrafts that were sent to Saturn to gather information. First was Pioneer 11 in 1979, which orbited within 20,000 km of Saturn. Then came Voyager 1 in 1980 and Voyager 2 in 1981, that sent images of Saturn's system that included the rings, moons, and satellites. Later in 2004, Cassini entered its orbit and sent useful information and images of Saturn and Titan.

Many would be eager to know more about this beautiful planet, but we have to wait until space satellites become more advanced and send some more interesting information and images back to Earth.