The Planet Saturn essays

The Planet Saturn essays Less than one-third the mass of Jupiter, Saturn is still an enormous planet. Saturn has a mass of about 95 Earths and has a very rapid rotation rate. Because its rotation rate is so rapid, it has an obvious oblateness. This oblateness is caused by a outward push at the middle, from the spin rate, causing a large bulge at the planet's equator and a flattening at the planet's pole regions. Saturn is well known for having more moons than any other planet in our solar system and a spectacular ring system. At least 20 moons have been spotted to date. Their reflective light suggest that most are covered with snow and ice and are probably made almost entirely of water ice. Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is the most intriguing of all Saturn's moons because of its gigantic chemical content. Scientists believe that the atmosphere on Titan may be the same as that of Earth's some billions years ago which eventually led to life on Earth and thus, possibly future life on Titan. The most obvious feature of Saturn, is its planetary ring system. Saturn has 7 main ring sections labeled A thru G. These ring sections consist of over 3,000 individual rings of various sizes, shapes, and compositions. Between some of the ring sections appears to be a "gap", but actually contains some ring material within it. This "gap", is known as Cassini Division, and lies between ring sections A and B. A smaller gap, known as Encke Division, is found in the outer part of ring section A. Of the three main ring sections, B is the brightest, followed by A, and then by the almost translucent C section. Saturn is visibly flattened (oblate) when viewed through a small telescope; its equatorial and polar diameters vary by almost 10% (120,536 km vs. 108,728 km). This is the result of its rapid rotation and fluid state. The other gas planets are also oblate, but not so much so. Saturn is the least dense of the planets; its specific gravity (0.7) is less than that of ...