saturn_2

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 * =Saturn=

by,Rashawn Williams,and Delon Ruffin
 * __saturn__**

Saturn has been known since prehistoric times. Galileo was the first to observe it with a telescope in 1610, he noted its odd appearance but was confused by it. Early observations of Saturn were complicated by the fact that the Earth passes through the plane of Saturn's rings every few years as Saturn moves in its orbit A low resolution image of Saturn therefore changes drastically. It was not until 1659 that Christiaan Huygens correctly inferred the geometry of the rings. Saturn's rings remained unique in the known solar system until 1977 when very faint rings were discovered around uranus (and shortly thereafter around jupiter and neptune).

The bands so prominent on Jupiter are much fainter on Saturn. They are also much wider near the equator. Details in the cloud tops are invisible from Earth so it was not until the voyager encounters that any detail of Saturn's atmospheric circulation could be studied. Saturn also exhibits long-lived ovals and other features common on jupiter. In 1990, astronomers observed an enormous white cloud near Saturn's equator which was not present during the Voyager encounters; in 1994 another, smaller storm was observed.

Saturn's interior is probably composed of a core of iron, nickel and rock (silicon and oxygen compounds), surrounded by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen an intermediate layer liquid hydrogen and liquid helium and an outer gaseous layer. Electrical current within the metallic hydrogen layer is thought to give rise to Saturn's planetary magnetic field, which is slightly weaker than Earth's and around one-twentieth the strength of Jupiter's. The outer atmosphere is generally bland and lacking in contrast, although long-lived features can appear. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 km/h.

Saturn is known as a gas planet planet because the exterior is predominantly composed of gas and it lacks a definite surface, although it may have a solid core. The rotation of the planet causes it to take the shape of an oblate spheroid that is, it is flattened at the poles and bulges at the equator. Its equatorial and polar radii differ by almost 10%—60,268 km versus 54,364 km, respectively. Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, the other gas giants in the Solar System, are also oblate, but to a lesser extent. Saturn is the only planet of the Solar System that is less dense than water; about 30% less. Although Saturn's core is considerably denser than water, the average specificdensity of the planet is 0.69 g/cm due to the gaseous atmosphere. Jupiter has 318 times the Earth's mass while Saturn is 95 times the mass of the Earth, yet Jupiter is only about 20% larger than Saturn.Together, Jupiter and Saturn hold 92% of the total planetary mass in the Solar System.

The outer atmosphere of Saturn contains 96.3% molecular hydrogen and 3.25% helium. The proportion of helium is significantly deficient compared to the abundance of this element in the Sun. The quantity of elements heavier than helium are not known precisely, but the proportions are assumed to match the primordial abundances from the formation of the Solar System. The total mass of these heavier elements is estimated to be 19–31 times the mass of the Earth, with a significant fraction located in Saturn's core region.

nineplanets.org/saturn wikipeadea.com