Lesson Six

Saturn

This gas giant is named for the Roman god of agriculture and is most commonly identified by its famous rings! Saturn's rings were first spotted by Galileo in 1610, but he didn't even know it. In fact, it was the astronomer Christian Huygens who realized what they were in 1655. Modern day astronomers have found that Saturn has four broader main ring groups and three smaller, narrower ring groups that run around the planet. This was confirmed around 1980-1981 by the flyby Voyager. Beyond the three main groups, the rings are composed of tens of thousands of tiny narrow ringlets. Saturn also has a similar axis tilt to Earth. Saturn is also known as one of the Jovian planets, which is what the planets beyond the Asteroid Belt are called. 

Atmosphere:Saturn's atmosphere is a lot like Jupiter's, with helium and hydrogen, although less helium. Methane and ammonia are also present is small numbers. These are found in the three cloud layers on the planet, and helium, which is heavier, is found in the lower cloud layers. However, Saturn is a very light planet. 

Saturn is a much less colourful planet, for it does not posses bright storm bands or anything like Jupiter. This is because the weather patterns are fairly stable, with east-west zonal flow. The equatorial stream can reach up to 932 miles her hour. Astronomers have found that Saturn seems to have a sort of internal energy source, and radiates almost three times the energy it absorbs from the sun. This is also caused by helium rain. Saturn has lots of moons, but only 53 of them are named. The largest is Titan, which is even larger than Mercury. It is the second largest moon in our solar system and the only one to have its own atmosphere. There is liquid hydrocarbon in the moon’s polar regions. Other than this surface liquid, Titan has a rocky core that is covered with a thick mantle of ice.