Saturn is a large celestial body located in sixth place from the Sun. This planet with rings has been known since ancient times. Saturn is one of the giant planets that make up the solar system.
General information
A planet with rings is 1.43 billion kilometers away from the Sun. This distance is almost 9.5 times greater than from our planet to the star. Sirius makes a revolution around our luminary for 29.4 Earth years.
Saturn is a unique planet. He is 95 times heavier than Earth. Moreover, in diameter it is most 9 times. The density is 0.69 g / cu. cm is lower than that of water. If we assume that an endless ocean spreads in space, Sirius could swim in it! All other planets of the system are denser than water - some - slightly, some - much. Such a low density and at the same time a very fast rotation around its axis compress the planet more than any other. Its radius at the equator is almost 11% larger than at the poles. Such a strong compression cannot be overlooked by the telescope - the planet is visible flattened, and not round.
A planet with rings does not have a hard surface. What appears to be a surface from Earth is actually clouds. The upper layer is frozen ammonia, below are hydrosulfide ammonium clouds. The deeper you plunge into the atmosphere of Saturn, the hotter it becomes, and the density becomes higher. At about the middle of the radius, hydrogen becomes metallic.
Rings
It used to be that Saturn is the only planet in the solar system that has rings. However, today it is known that this statement is false. All four gas giants have rings. But it is not in vain that Saturn is known to us as a planet with rings. The fact is that it is she who has the most significant, unique and noticeable rings, on other planets they are not always visible and not in any telescope.
As Huygens had supposed in 1659, these very rings are not just one solid body, they are billions of billions of very small particles rotating in a circle.
In total, four rings revolve around Saturn - three main and one barely noticeable. All rings reflect light more than the planet itself. The central ring is the brightest and widest; it is separated from the outer ring by the Cassini gap, which is almost 4 thousand kilometers. In this gap are translucent rings. The outer ring is divided by a band of Encke. The inner ring is almost a haze, it is so transparent.
In reality, these rings are very thin. Their thickness is less than a thousand meters, although the diameter is more than 250 kilometers. It seems that these rings are very powerful and bulky, but it was calculated that if you collect all the substance that makes them up in one "heap", the diameter of this body will be no more than 100 km.
The images that the probes transmit to us make it clear that the rings consist of many small rings that resemble tracks of records. Most of the particles that make up the rings do not exceed a few centimeters. Few of them are more than a few meters. And already units - 1-2 kilometers. Most likely, they all consist of ice or a substance similar to stone, but covered with ice.
Scientists are not sure about the origin of the rings. There is a version that they arose simultaneously with the planet itself. In any case, the matter that makes up the ring is constantly being replaced, replenished, possibly due to the destruction of small satellites.
Satellites
By the end of February 2010, 62 satellites were known . Most of them rotate around its axis at the same speed as around the planet, so they are always turned to it on one side.
Saturn's largest satellite is Titan. At the moment there is a version that now on Titan the conditions are similar to those that were 4 billion years ago on Earth, when life was barely emerging.
Between satellites and rings there is complete consistency. Some of them, according to scientists, are "shepherds" for the rings, holding them in their places.
Research
A planet with rings interested people in 1609, when Galileo began observing it. Since then, research on the planet has been conducted from many telescopes, and in 1997 a research apparatus was launched. In July 2004, he entered the orbit of the planet. In addition, the Huygens probe descended on Titan to study its surface.
Interesting
A planet surrounded by rings does not have a solid surface. Its density is lower than that of all bodies in the solar system. The planet consists of the lightest elements of the Mendeleev system - helium and hydrogen.
Saturn's clouds form an almost regular hexagon. This was discovered back in 1980 by a Voyager flying by. Such a phenomenon was not observed in any other place in the solar system. Moreover, this cloud shape at the north pole of the planet has been maintained for 20 years.
Saturn’s North Pole boasts aurora that scientists have never seen in other places. Their uniqueness is not only that the radiance itself is blue, but red color is reflected on the clouds, but also that the radiance covers the entire pole, although on Jupiter and Earth only magnetic poles surround it. Pictures of Saturn's annular radiance make it possible to suspect that particles charged by the Sun are exposed to other magnetic forces, the nature of which has not yet been studied.