We all know that there are millions of planets in millions of galaxies. Among them our galaxy is one. There are nine children’s and a parent in our solar system. The Sun behaving as a parent and nine planets as children. The Sun gives heat and light to other planets. The nine members of solar system are-1. Mercury
2. Venus
3. Earth
4. Mars
5. Jupiter
6. Saturn
7. Uranus
8. Neptune
9. Pluto
This serial order is according to the distance from the Sun. Among these nine planets Jupiter is the largest planet and Pluto smallest planet. Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system. It is yellowish in color and is named after Saturnus, a Roman God of harvest and agriculture. The roman people worship Saturn as a god to agriculture. With a diameter of around 74,898 miles; more than nine earths when arranged in a straight line, would fit in Saturn. In terms of distance, it is sixth from the Sun (around 890 million miles). The speed of wind on Saturn can reach up to 1800 km/h. The planet takes 10 hours and 39 minutes to complete a single rotation. Sunlight on Saturn is 1% brighter as compared to that on our planet Earth. Saturday, a day from week is derived from the name Saturn.We all know that Saturn is the only planet having rings around it. The number of moons and number of rings of Saturn is still a mystery that even today scientist is researching about that. There is no specific number of rings given by the scientist.
In 1610 an astronomer called as Galileo Galilei discovered Saturn but was confused seeing the rings of the planet. He couldn’t understand them. He thought that the rings were actually moons on the sides of Saturn. He saw the rings appearing and disappearing in time, which confused him. It was due to the tilt and the thinness of the rings that made them nearly invisible. Later in 1655, Christian Huygens, who was a Dutch astronomer, discovered that there were rings around this planet.
A secret of Saturn is that it is not a solid planet like Earth and Mars as people think. Although it has core that consists of rocks and ice. The outer layers of the
Core is surrounded by a very thick layer of different gases. Around 97% of Saturn consists of hydrogen, 2.5% helium, and the rest is filled with ammonia, methane, ethane, phosphine, rocks, ice, etc. The temperature on Saturn is around -180 degrees Celsius. Rings are the beauty of Saturn, and can be seen even with a small telescope, though, it would show only three rings. A larger telescope is required to enable us to see all the rings more clearly. The rings of Saturn are around 150,000 miles in diameter and are made up of small pieces of rock, ice and dust.Saturn is the least dense among all known planets; having a weight of 0.687 g/cm, which is in fact even lighter than water. It means that it would float, if placed in a water body of a size bigger than itself.Saturn has 60 known moons, and there are many more yet to be discovered. Titan is the largest of Saturn’s moon, and is larger than Mercury and Pluto. Titan is also the second largest moon in the solar system.It's the farthest planet that can be seen without using a telescope. Though, you would not be able to see its rings, but the planet itself can be seen like a bright star in the sky.The rotational speed of Saturn is so fast, that it is flattened at the poles. The distance from the center to the poles is more than that from the center to the equator. This results in the planet being a little oval in shape.There were four spacecrafts that were sent to Saturn to gather information. First was Pioneer 11 in 1979, which orbited within 20,000 km of Saturn. Then came Voyager 1 in 1980 and Voyager 2 in 1981 that sent images of Saturn's system that included the rings, moons, and satellites. Later in 2004, Cassini entered its orbit and sent useful information and images of Saturn and Titan.Many would be eager to know more about this beautiful planet, but we have to wait until space satellites become more advanced and send some more interesting information and images back to Earth.
Scientists believe that there may be lives in the Saturn too. A satellite from NASA while passing through the rings of Saturn received a signal and waves that looked similar to human voices. It is real fact or not is still a mystery. Further study and research is going on to know more about Saturn.
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