Saturn Planet

Saturn planet

The Saturn planet is the second largest Planet in the solar system, which is known for its rings. This Planet is the sixth Planet from the sun at a distance of  1.4 billion Km.

Features of Saturn

            Saturn is a Planet with a diameter of 120,500Km from the Sun. This Planet is  filled with the Hydrogen and the Helium. This has a volume greater than 760 earths and has a mass 95 times that of the Earth’s mass. The Saturn is the second largest one, after the largest Planet Jupiter.

The Saturn takes 29.5 years to complete one rotation about its axis. A day in a Saturn equals the 10.7 hours in Earth. This Planet has seven rings and many gaps in between them.

Structure of Saturn

            The core in the Saturn has a structure similar to the Jupiter. It’s core contains the nickel, iron and the rock made up of the silicon along with the oxygen compounds. Then the layer of metallic Hydrogen along with the liquid layer of the combination of  the Helium and Hydrogen surrounds those compounds.             

Atmosphere and Elements of  Saturn

            The Saturn contains the ammonia crystals on its upper part, while the inner atmosphere contains the Hydrogen and the Helium. Then the terrific storms with  the speed of wind of 160Kmh blow around the Planet. Here the lightening that occurs in this Planet is  stronger than the lightening on the Earth. Then the traces of other elements found in this Planet are the phosphine, propane, ammonia, methane and ethane, inside the Saturn’s atmosphere. In this Planet, the upper clouds contains the ammonia crystals, while the lower clouds contains the ammonium hydrosulfide and  the water.         

Magnetosphere

            The intrinsic magnetic field of the Saturn is simple and symmetrical in shape. At the equator, the magnetic field strength is 20µT, which is one twentieth of the Jupiter’s field. This field is produced by the currents in the liquid metallic-hydrogen layer like in the Jupiter.

Saturn Natural satellites

            This Planet has 82 moons which are known, while 53 of the moons have the formal names. The largest moon consists above 90% of the mass in the orbit of the Saturn which includes the rings. Then the second largest moon of the Saturn, Rhea has a tenuous atmosphere that has a tenuous orbit  on its own. The Enceladus, one of the Saturn’s moon which has the chemical content similar to comets, is the habitat for the microbial life.

Perihelion and Aphelion

This Planet Saturn holds the Perihelion of  1514.50 million Km, which is the closest distance to the sun. 

This Planet Saturn has the Aphelion of about  1352.55 million Km,  which is the farthest approach to the sun.

Missions to Saturn

            There are some spacecrafts that had visited the Saturn. They are the Cassini, Pioneer 11 and Voyagers 1 & 2. The Cassini rotated around the Saturn nearly 294 times from the 2004 to 2017.

            In 1979, the first mission to go to the Saturn was the Pioneer11, which flew inside the 13700 miles of the Planet. This Planet not able to support the life, but few conditions on the moons of the Saturn may support the life. In September 2017, the mission Cassini crashed into the Planet, to prevent that crashing in the inner surface of the Saturn moon. This spacecraft, went low on fuel at the time of  its destruction.