Saturn, The Magnificent

SATURN MAGNIFICENT

No story about the Solar System in this Universe or the galaxy is complete  without a thorough discussion about the nature’s prominent beacon, the fabulous planet named Saturn, the sixth planet out from the Sun. first of all its steady brightness, secondly, its lovely right system, thirdly the massive hydrogen atmosphere, fourthly, its placement in the Solar System. Fifth and surely not the last the retinue of 63 moons and moonlets mostly lying hidden inside the rings. As you are surely aware, the sixth planet is also the second largest in the Solar system. It stands at 120,536 km across which is about 19 times more than the Earth. Saturn’s tremendous magnetic field is 1000 times stronger than the Earth. Awesome winds blow on its surface no less than 1800km/hour but slower than on Neptune.

The Jupiter is not planet but a brown dwarf, have done a favour to Saturn. It is the largest of all planets. The Roman god of agriculture (Saturnus) has crust not very different from that of the Earth. But deep down in its core hydrogen gas undergoes a transition into metallic form owning to ominous pressures at work absolutely relentlessly and gradually increasing heat.

It is also said that gullible ancestors of ours Saturn very appropriately has a sickle for a symbol. For thousands of years, in thousands of epochs the planet has been revered like little else. Although 95 times more massive than the earth, planet Saturn is only 16 percent of the density of the lesser cousin. It is composed of iron, nickel and rock (Silicon and Oxygen compounds), surrounded by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen and liquid helium again surrounded by an outer layer of gas.

Saturn is a mighty windy planet. Winds may reach the velocity of 1800km per hour. Often more these winds can be far faster than on Jupiter but way short of those on Neptune where they blow like crazy, planet Earth has known nothing like it for the last three billion years. But when the only traces of life were confined to the seas where the fauna (an animal life) was still far into the future. All the Saturn moons, Titan is the largest. In fact Titan is the king among moons. Much larger than our own moon, it has a diameter of 5900km (out moon is 347km). the next largest in the Solar System is Jupiter’s moon named Ganymede (its mass is much more than Titan). Titan has an atmosphere, somewhat like us the orbital speed of Titan is a leisurely 9.69 km per second. But because Saturn has a lot more to travel, it completes its orbit in 30 years.

Our earth is also flattened at the poles thought it is a solid and not a gaseous planet. But as it is know  that once upon a time it was fluid and so it developed a bulge around the equator, making the equatorial area slightly larger than the poles. That is the true for all planets and their moons. Some of Saturn moons have very interesting names.