History UsefulNotes / Saturn

->''The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage.''
-->--Mark Russell

* Music/GustavHolst's "Saturn, The Bringer of Old Age" from "The Planets" movement.

Saturn is 6th planet in the solar system, the second most massive (about 95 earth masses), and the second highest volume, though it's also the least dense (on average, it is less dense than liquid water). It is made mainly of hydrogen and helium gas, with a possibly rocky core in the center, and additional trace elements. Saturn's atmosphere, though looking bland in most far away pictures, has intense cyclones and storms, and the second fastest winds in the solar system on average (After Neptune).

* Music/NoDoubt's 2000 album "Return of Saturn" was named that because around that time the band members were all around 29 years old - one orbit of Saturn.

It is very likely that the four terrestrial planets, and by extension humanity, have Saturn to thank for their continued existence. Current theories on solar system formation state that it is typical for large gas giants to migrate inward until they orbit extremely close to their stars, often close enough that a full revolution takes only weeks, or even days. Jupiter most likely would have done the same, destroying everything in its path via gravitational forces, if Saturn had not formed with sufficient mass and in the right position to yank Jupiter back, allowing the inner planets to continue forming.

* Grant D. Callin's ''Saturnalia'' focuses on Saturn and its moons, as a sort of cosmic ''TreasureIsland'' with colonist and Earthers hunting down alien artifacts.

It is very likely that the four terrestrial planets, and by extension humanity, have Saturn to thank for their continued existence. Current theories on solar system formation state that it is typical for large gas giants to migrate inward until they orbit extremely close to their stars, often close enough that a full revolution takes only weeks, or even days. Jupiter most likely would have done the same, destroying everything in its path via gravitation forces, if Saturn had not formed with sufficient mass and in the right position to yank Jupiter back, allowing the inner planets to continue forming.

* Music/NoDoubt's 2000 album "Return of Saturn" wa named that because around that time the band members were around 29 years old - one orbit of Saturn.

The ring system actually consists of ''thousands'' of individual rings, each orbiting the planet at a slightly different distance. There are gaps where few or no rings exist, created by the gravitational interaction between the rings and the moons. The rings are extremely thin, no more than a kilometer thick from one side to the other and perhaps as thin as ''ten meters''. While a few of the fragments making up the rings are made of rock, almost all of the ring fragments are made of plain old water ice, ranging in size from 10 meters across all the way down to a centimeter across.

UsefulNotes/TheMoonsOfSaturn are mostly crater covered ice and rock balls, but the largest, Titan, has a thick atmosphere (about 1.5x the pressure of Earth's), and has a number of hydrocarbon lakes, erosion channels, rivers, and other surface features. Titan may also have ice volcanoes, or other geologic processes. Another moon, Enceladus, has the previously mentioned water geysers, and possible an underground liquid water layer. The moons of Saturn also help maintain some of the Rings, by providing material through collisions, and gravitationally interacting with the rings to keep them stable.

Saturn is 6th planet in the solar system, the second most massive (about 95 earth masses), and the second highest volume, though it's also the least dense (less dense than on average than liquid water). It is made mainly of hydrogen and helium gas, with a possibly rocky core in the center, and additional trace elements. Saturn's atmosphere, though looking bland in most far away pictures, has intense cyclones and storms, and the second fastest winds in the solar system on average (After Neptune).

Saturn's magnetic field is the second largest in the solar system, and is probably generated by metallic hydrogen in the core of the planet. The plasma within the field primarily comes from the moon Enceledas, which shoots water through geysers in the south pole that is than ionized, while some other material comes from Titan, and a bit from other moons. Energy comes from both the Solar Wind and from Saturn's rotation, somewhat of a mixture of Jupiter's magnetosphere (Where rotation supplies most of the energy), and other planetary magnetospheres (Where the solar wind supplies almost all the energy). As with other solar system bodies with magnetic fields, Saturn has its own Auroras.

UsefulNotes/TheMoonsOfSaturn are mostly crater covered ice and rock balls, but the largest, Titan, has a thick atmosphere (about 1.5x the pressure of Earth's), and has a number of hydrocarbon lakes, erosion channels, rivers, and other surface features. Titan may also have ice volcanoes, or other geologic processes. Another moon, Enceledas, has the previously mentioned water geysers, and possible an underground liquid water layer. The moons of Saturn also help maintain some of the Rings, by providing material through collisions, and gravitationally interacting with the rings to keep them stable.

TheMoonsOfSaturn are mostly crater covered ice and rock balls, but the largest, Titan, has a thick atmosphere (about 1.5x the pressure of Earth's), and has a number of hydrocarbon lakes, erosion channels, rivers, and other surface features. Titan may also have ice volcanoes, or other geologic processes. Another moon, Enceledas, has the previously mentioned water geysers, and possible an underground liquid water layer. The moons of Saturn also help maintain some of the Rings, by providing material through collisions, and gravitationally interacting with the rings to keep them stable.

Saturn's orbit isn't perfectly circular; at perihelion, it's barely 9 A.U.[[hottip:*:A.U. stands for Astronomical Unit, the average distance between the Earth and the sun]] from the sun, but then it swings out until it's over 10 A.U. away from the sun at aphelion. One complete orbit takes a hair under 29-and-a-half years.

The Ringed planet.

The rings of Saturn are composed of large numbers of ice and rock fragments, possibly formed from a collision of a moon that than never came back together. These clumps often combine and than split, maintaining and redistributing material throughout the rings. Scientists still debate the age of the rings, which may be relatively recent (in solar system terms), or may be almost as old as the solar system.

Saturn is 6th planet in the solar system, the the second most massive (about 95 earth masses), and the second highest volume, though is also the least dense (less dense than on average than liquid water). It is made mainly of hydrogen and helium gas, with a possibly rocky core in the center, and additional trace elements. Saturn's atmosphere, though looking bland in most far away pictures, has intense cyclones and storms, and the second fastest winds in the solar system on average (After Neptune).

TheMoonsOfSaturn are mostly crater covered ice and rock balls, but the largest, Titan, has an thick atmosphere (about 1.5x the pressure of Earth's), and has a number of hydrocarbon lakes, erosion channels, rivers, and other surface features. Titan may also have ice volcanoes, or other geologic processes. Another moon, Enceledas, has the previously mentioned water geysers, and possible an underground liquid water layer. The moons of Saturn also help maintain some of the Rings, by providing material through collisions, and gravitationally interacting with the rings to keep them stable.

The moons of Saturn are mostly crater covered ice and rock balls, but the largest, Titan, has an thick atmosphere (about 1.5x the pressure of Earth's), and has a number of hydrocarbon lakes, erosion channels, rivers, and other surface features. Titan may also have ice volcanoes, or other geologic processes. Another moon, Enceledas, has the previously mentioned water geysers, and possible an underground liquid water layer. The moons of Saturn also help maintain some of the Rings, by providing material through collisions, and gravitationally interacting with the rings to keep them stable.

See also: TheMoonsOfSaturn

The rings of Saturn are composed of large numbers of ice and rock fragments, possibly formed from a collision of a moon that than never came back together. These clumps often combine and than split, maintaining and redistributing material throughout the rings. Scientists still debate the age of the rings, which may be relatively recent (in solar system terms), or may be almost as old as the solar system.

Saturn is 6th planet in the solar system, the the second most massive (about 95 earth masses), and the second highest volume, though is also the least dense (less dense than on average than liquid water). It is made mainly of hydrogen and helium gas, with a possibly rocky core in the center, and additional trace elements. Saturn's atmosphere, the looking bland, has on closer inspection its own intense storms, and the second fastest winds in the solar system on average (After Neptune), and its own unique storm patterns (A hexagon at one of the roles for example.)

Saturn's magnetic field is the second largest in the solar system, and is probably generated by metallic hydrogen in the core of the planet. The plasma within the field primarily comes from Enceledas, which shoots water through geysers in the south pole that is than ionized, while some other material comes from titan, and a but from other moons. Energy comes from both the Solar Wind and from Saturn's rotation, somewhat between Jupiter's magnetosphere (Where rotation supplies most of the energy), and other planetary magnetospheres (Where the solar wind supplies almost all the energy). As with other solar system bodies with magnetic fields, Saturn has its own Auroras.

The moons of Saturn are mostly crater covered ice and rock balls, but the largest, Titan, has an thick atmosphere (about 1.5x the pressure of Earth's), and has a number of hydrocarbon lakes, erosion channels, rivers, and other surface features. Titan may also have ice volcanoes, or other geologic processes. Another moon, Enceledas, has the previously mentioned water geysers, and possible an underground liquid water layer. The moons of Saturn also help maintain some of the Rings, buy providing material through collisions, gravitationally interacting with the rings to keep them stable.