Saturn is the sixth largest solar system planet (after Jupiter) from the sun. It is also called the gas giant, and it got its name in honor of the Roman god of agriculture.
To the question of how many satellites Saturn has, it is difficult to give an exact answer. Until 1997, astronomers knew only 18 of them. Currently, with the advent of the latest powerful telescopes, it has been possible to count them much more. Saturn's natural satellites are represented by a decent amount (62 pieces - with a confirmed orbit). 53 of them have their own names. Most of them consist of ice, rocks and are small in size. This explains their main feature - high ability to reflect sunlight. In larger satellites, a stony core forms. Most of them (except for Phoebe and Hyperion) are constantly turned to the planet with only one side.
Saturn's moons are regular and irregular. The first consists of 24 pieces, and the second - 38. The movement of regular satellites occurs in almost circular orbits located near the equatorial plane of the planet. They rotate exclusively in the direction of rotation of Saturn. This indicates that the regular satellites of Saturn formed in the gas-dust cloud that surrounded the planet during its inception.
Irregular representatives include planets whose movement is different from universal rules. They may have a more elongated orbit or eccentricity, reverse movement in the orbit, or a greater inclination to the equatorial plane. Saturn's irregular satellites are classified into 3 groups according to the characteristics of their orbits:
- Galician;
- Inuit
- and Norwegian.
They rotate in chaotic orbits far from the planet. This indicates that Saturn recently captured these bodies from the nuclei of comets or asteroids flying past it.
The largest satellite of Saturn is Titan. In the solar system, only he alone has a dense atmosphere, and in size he takes an honorable 2nd place. It can be viewed through a telescope, since it is only half the size of the Earth. This is a very interesting celestial body, which scientists have already managed to study quite well. It was found that the satellite of Saturn, Titan, has a composition that is supposedly very similar to the composition of the Earth, which it possessed at the beginning of its origin. Scientists are of the opinion that in its atmosphere there are also processes that, billions of years ago, were characteristic of our planet.
Due to its opaque gas shell having a thickness of about 300 km, it was practically inaccessible to astronomers trying to measure its diameter. Only with the advent of the latest advances in telescopic technology, studies have shown that the bowels of Titan can consist of equal parts of frozen water and solid rocks. Basically, its atmosphere is formed from nitrogen, which makes it look like the Earth.
Previously, there was a hypothesis, still not outlived, about the existence on this satellite of rivers, lakes and seas formed from methane or ethane. Methane is able to exist in three phases and maintain a semblance of the greenhouse effect, which is observed on this satellite.
Titan does not have a magnetic field, which means that it does not have a core that conducts current. The surface temperature is estimated at 95 Kelvin, and the pressure exceeds the earth one and a half times. Low temperature does not allow the formation of more complex organic substances. However, it has its own magnetic tail, formed from interaction with the magnetic field of Saturn, in the magnetosphere of which Titan serves as a source of charged and neutral hydrogen atoms.
When studying the question of how many satellites Saturn has, the most accurate consideration will probably be the largest. One of them is Mimos, which has a huge crater called Herschel, which is about 130 km in diameter. This is larger than the size of many Saturn’s moons. Dion, Tefiya, Enceladus and Rhea - all of them belong to large objects and have deep craters and canyons, and Enceladus is also the brightest celestial body of the solar system.