Saturn Vishesh, Tevon and Karina. Geological Features Five layers: Hot solid inner core of iron and rocky material. A dense outer core of methane,

SaturnSaturn

Vishesh, Tevon and Karina

Geological Features

Five layers: Hot solid inner core of iron and rocky material.

A dense outer core of methane, and water.

A layer of liquid hydrogen surrounds the outer core.

Above this layer lies a region composed of hydrogen and helium in a viscous (syrup like) form.

A dense layer of clouds covers Saturn.

Atmosphere

Clouds

Atmospheric Pressure: 1.4

Composition: Hydrogen 97%

Helium 3%

Saturn’s Aurora

Titan Flyby

Chemical composition

Saturn’s atmosphere is similar to the other gas planets, which means it is mainly made up of hydrogen and helium

The chemical composition of Saturn is studied by spectroscopy (mostly infrared)

Saturn in Infrared

Mass and Size

Mass

Mass (kg) 5.688e+26

Mass (Earth = 1) 9.5181e+01

Density is 30% less then water

Its mean density is 0.69

Size

Equatorial diameter of 119,300 kilometres (74,130 miles).

Second largest planet in the solar system

Age and Formation

Radioactive dating from data by:

Voyager Space Craft

Bubble Space Telescope

4.6 billion years old (a little after Earth)

Outer planetoids remained cooler and formed a planet.

Rings 300 million years younger then Saturn- made by moon.

Rough surface temperature: 15, 000⁰C.

Creation of rings

Moons

Has 31 officially recognized and named satellites as well as other unconfirmed satellites

There are 3 unconfirmed satellites, one circles the orbit of Dione, the second one is between the orbits of Tethys and Dione, and the third is located between Dione and Rhea

They were found in Voyager photographs but are not confirmed because they have only been sighted once.

Recently the Hubble telescope has imaged four new objects that could be moons.

The following chart names the known moons, as well as there number, radius, mass, distance, its discoverer and when it was discovered.

  Moon # Radius(km)

Mass(kg)

Distance(km)

Discoverer

Pan XVIII 9.655 ? 133,583 Mark R. Showalter

S/2005 S1 7 ? 136,530 Cassini Spacecraft

Atlas XV 20x15 ? 137,640 R. Terrile

Prometheus XVI 72.5x42.5x32.5 2.7e+17* 139,350 S. Collins & others

Pandora XVII 57x42x31 2.2e+17* 141,700 S. Collins & others

Epimetheus XI 72x54x49 5.6e+17* 151,422 R. Walker

Janus X 98x96x75 2.01e+18* 151,472 Audouin Dollfus

Mimas I 198.6 +- 0.6 3.84E+19 185,520 William Herschel

Enceladus II 249.4 +- 0.2 8.65E+19 238,020 William Herschel

Tethys III 529.9 +- 1.5 6.176E+20 294,660 Giovanni Domenico Cassini

Telesto XIII 17x14x13 ? 294,660 B. Smith & others

Calypso XIV 17x11x11 ? 294,660 B. Smith & others

Dione IV 559. +- 5 1.0959E+21 377,400 Giovanni Domenico Cassini

Helene XII 18x16x15 ? 377,400 P. Laques & J. Lecacheus

1980

Rhea V 764. +- 4 2.3166E+21 527,040 Giovanni Domenico

Cassini

1672

Titan VI 2575.5 +- 2 1.345426E+23 1,221,850 Christiaan Huygens

1655

Hyperion VII 205x130x110 1.77E+19 1,481,000 William Cranch Bond

1848

Iapetus VIII 730 1.88E+21 3,561,300 Giovanni Domenico

Cassini

1671

Kiviuq XXIV 7 ? 11,365,000 B. Gladman 2000

Ijiraq XXII 5 ? 11,442,000 J.J. Kavelaars, B. Gladman

2000

Phoebe IX 115 x 110 x 105 4E+18 12,952,000 William Henry Pickering

1898

Paaliaq XX 9.5 ? 15,198,000 B. Gladman 2000

Skathi XXVII 3.2 ? 15,641,000 J.J. Kavelaars, B. Gladman

2000

Albiorix XXVI 13 ? 16,394,000 M. Holman, T.B. Spahr

2000

Erriapo XXVIII 4.3 ? 17,604,000 J.J. Kavelaars, B. Gladman

2000

Siarnaq XXIX 16 ? 18,195,000 B. Gladman, J.J. Kavelaars

2000

Tarvos XXI 6.5 ? 18,239,000 J.J. Kavelaars, B. Gladman

2000

S/2003 S1 3.3 ? 18,719,000 S.S. Sheppard 2003

Mundilfari XXV 2.8 ? 18,722,000

B. Gladman,

J.J. Kavelaars

2000

Suttungr XXIII 2.8 ? 19,465,000

B. Gladman,

J.J. Kavelaars

2000

Thrymr XXX 2.8 ? 20,219,000

B. Gladman,

J.J. Kavelaars

2000

Ymir XIX 8 ? 23,130,000

B. Gladman

2000

Some facts about the moons:Only Titan has an appreciable atmosphere Most of the Satellites have a synchronous rotation except Hyperion which has a chaotic orbit and Phoebe The satellites have almost a circular orbit and lie in the equatorial plane except Lapetus and PhoebeAll the satellites have a density of <2 gm/cm3

They are composed of 30 to 40% rock, and 60 to 70% ice waterMost of the satellites reflect 60 to 90% of light that strikes them, the four outer satellites reflect less and Phoebe only reflects 2%

Gravity

Even though Saturn is 95 times bigger than Earth, its gravitational pull is 1.07 stronger than earth’s own.

This is because Saturn is the has the lowest density in solar system).

Rotation, Revolution and Axis

Rotation

Saturn rotation is the 2nd fastest in our solar system, 10 hours and 39 min, more than 2 earth days .

Revolution

Saturn travels around the sun in an oval shaped path, (1,514,500,000 kilometres), this Revolution takes 10759 Earth days or 29.5 years.

Axis Tilt

Saturn is tilted at an angle of 26.7A, 2.7A more than Earth (23.4).

Saturn’s Revolution compared to the Earth’s.

Distance and Temperature

1.35 to 1.5 billion km from Sun.

1.2 billion km from Earth.

Assumed Core Temperature: 15, 000 ⁰C.

Atmospheric Temperature: -170 ⁰C or -274 ⁰F.

Water-ice temperature: -23 ⁰ C to -93 ⁰ C.

Water ice

Magnetic Field

Dipole Magnetic Field.

0.2 Gauss.

It is because of this field, that Saturn’s moons and rings are in place.

Space probes used to explore Saturn:

Pioneer 11 traveled to Saturn, where it collected valuable information about the planet's rings

Voyager space probes reached Saturn in 1980 and 1981; they sent back pictures of Saturn’s rings and Moons.

Cassini is orbiting Saturn

Double Aurora by Hubble Space Telescope

Facts Saturn has seven rings.

Saturn was named after the Roman god of agriculture.

Saturn’s were not discovered until Galileo viewed Saturn through his telescope.

Saturn’s rings are made up of ice particles floating around the equator of the planet.

The conditions on Saturn are so intense that even through experiments these conditions could not be obtained.

Saturn’s density is so low, that it could float on water.

833 Earths

References

Universe Today: http://www.universetoday.com/15385/formation-of-saturn/

Kysat:

http://kysat.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/01/new-titan-flyby.html

Solar Views: http://www.solarviews.com/eng/saturn.htm

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/saturn_worldbook.html

http://www.scienceclarified.com/Ro-Sp/Space-Probe.html

Various websites for images

Thank you!