Recent questions tagged saturn

Description : What’s the difference between a moon and a ring particle? 

Last Answer : The rings are nothing more than a dense swarm of tiny, interacting moons. In principle, you could find an orbit for every ring particle around Saturn if the particles did not interact with ... to see just what definitions evolve once Cassini begins making its closer examination of Saturn's rings!

Description : Are Saturn’s moons in the rings? Do the moons collide with the ring particles?

Last Answer : One small moon has been found orbiting within the main rings (A, B, C). This moon, named Pan, orbits in the Encke Gap, near the outer edge of the A ring. Pan sweeps the gap clear of ... it and producing particles. No one has yet seen these probable G ring moons - perhaps the Cassini spacecraft will!

Description : Why does Saturn have so many moons, but Earth has only one?

Last Answer : Here again, astronomers can make some educated guesses. There is more planet-building stuff at Saturn's orbital distance than at Earth's orbital distance. This is because Saturn's orbit is so far from ... , which later collided with each other or Earth, and now we are left with one large moon.

Description : Are Saturn’s moons like Earth’s Moon?

Last Answer : Yes and no. Many of them are covered with impact craters like our Moon, but the moons of Saturn are made up of much more water ice than Earth's moon. Earth's Moon may have very tiny patches of ice, ... , and un-like all of the other 60 or so moons in the Solar System, Titan has a thick atmosphere.

Description : Who discovered all these moons?

Last Answer : In 1655, Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch astronomer, observed Saturn through a telescope and discovered Saturn's largest moon, Titan, although it wouldn't be named this for another 200 years. Titan's diameter ... still excited, because this was the first time the F ring clumps had been seen from Earth.

Description : How many moons does Saturn have?

Last Answer : At least 18 moons orbit Saturn. Until recently, Saturn was the moon champion, recognized as having more than any other planet in the Solar System. However, astronomers have announced discoveries ... faces away from their direction of motion. These are called the leading and trailing hemispheres.

Description : If Earth had rings like Saturn’s, what would they look like from the ground?

Last Answer : If you were to scale down Saturn and its ring system so that Saturn was the size of Earth, the outer edge of the A ring would stretch about 6,400 km (4,000 mi) from Earth's ... Earth had rings like Saturn's, they would appear exceptionally beautiful on the summer solstice from midlatitudes at noon.

Description : Why doesn’t Earth have rings?

Last Answer : The small inner planets may have had rings in the past and may have rings again in the future. One prevalent theory says that ring systems are much younger than the age of the Solar System, and as ... orbit around our planet. In a very short time, this debris would gather together to form the Moon.

Description : How old are the rings? Has Saturn always had rings? Will it always have rings?

Last Answer : Using data collected by NASA's Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft, scientists have estimated that Saturn's rings are only 100 million years old, a small fraction of the 4.6 billion years the Solar ... Saturn. It is now apparent that Saturn's rings are complex, dynamic, and constantly evolving things.

Description : Why does Saturn have rings? How were the rings made?

Last Answer : The rings probably formed primarily because one or more small moons broke up close to Saturn. This breakup could have been the result of a collision with a comet or asteroid, or with another moon in ... This slowly grinds them down in size and spreads them out, gradually adding to Saturn's rings.

Description : How big are the rings?

Last Answer : Saturn's ring system is both very broad and very thin. The inner edge of the rings begins approximately 6,700 km (4,200 mi) from the cloudtops of Saturn. The outer edge of the A ring is ... of a football field. At its outer edge, the E ring increases in thickness to several thousand kilometers.

Description : Do the rings move? 

Last Answer : Yes, but not like a solid would move. The bits and boulders of Saturn's rings each orbit like tiny moons. They move around Saturn in the same direction as Saturn rotates and the same direction as ... a much longer time (millions of years), some of the rings may spread out and eventually disappear. 

Description : Does Saturn have seasons like Earth’s?

Last Answer : Yes, sort of. Earth has seasons because of the tilt of its axis. Imagine a line drawn through Earth from the North Pole to the South Pole. This line always points toward the distant star Polaris, no ... it's summer in Australia: Earth is slightly closer to the Sun in January than it is in July. 

Description : How long is a year on Saturn?

Last Answer : A year is the time it takes for Earth to make one complete trip around the Sun, or about 365 Earth days. It takes Saturn 29.5 Earth years to travel once around the Sun, so one Saturn year is about 30 Earth years. ... orbit around the Sun since you were born! (15/30 = 1/2 = 0.5 of a Saturn year old)

Description :  How long is a month on Saturn?

Last Answer : A calendar month on Earth is a bit longer than the time it takes for the Moon to completely orbit Earth and go through a full set of moon phases - about 29.5 days. Saturn has many moons whose ... , which takes about 16 Earth days to orbit Saturn, then a Saturn month would be 36 Saturn days long.

Description : How long is a day on Saturn?

Last Answer : A day on Earth is 24 hours long - the time it takes Earth to make one complete rotation relative to the Sun. Saturn's day is 10 hours 39 minutes - the time it takes Saturn to make one complete ... though Saturn is much larger than Earth, a Saturn day is less than half as long as an Earth day.

Description :  Does Saturn have a magnetic field like Earth’s?

Last Answer : Yes. Deep inside Saturn, probably in the deepest layers of liquid hydrogen and helium, something is causing Saturn to act like a giant magnet. The same sort of thing happens in the hot liquid ... . Auroras are caused when particles streaming from the Sun interact with Saturn's magnetic field.

Description :  Is there life on Saturn?

Last Answer : Probably not. Extreme temperatures, and lack of adequate water and oxygen make it highly unlikely that life as we know it exists anywhere in Saturn’s atmosphere.

Description : Since Saturn and Jupiter are both made up of mostly hydrogen and helium, why isn’t Saturn the same color as Jupiter?

Last Answer : Saturn is a world of white and pastel yellow cloud layers, perhaps somewhat reminiscent of the colors in a lemon meringue pie. Jupiter, by contrast, displays bright yellows, oranges, and reds in exotic swirls ... do exist on Saturn, they are harder to see because the colors do not contrast as much.

Description : Does Saturn have winds and storms?

Last Answer : Yes, but the winds and storms on Saturn are very different from those on Earth. The Voyager spacecraft measured a giant jetstream near Saturn's equator with a fantastic eastward speed of about 1,800 ... Jupiter's Great Red Spot is the most notable example of a long-lived hurricane on another planet.

Description : What is the temperature on Saturn?

Last Answer : Astronomers have measured the temperature near the cloudtops of Saturn to be about -143 °C (-225 °F). This temperature increases with depth because the gases are compressed to dramatically greater ... planet. Cassini scientists will be exploring Saturn's energy balance for answers to this puzzle.

Description : What’s gravity like on Saturn? Would I weigh the same on Saturn as on Earth?

Last Answer : The gravitational acceleration at the cloud tops of Saturn is similar to that near the surface of Earth - 10.4 m/sec2 for Saturn, compared to 9.8 m/sec2 on the surface of Earth. Thus, it turns out you ... six times less on the Moon. Your mass, however, is exactly the same on the Moon or on Earth. 

Description : Since Saturn does not have a solid surface, would I sink to the middle of the planet if I tried to walk there?

Last Answer : Saturn has an outer layer of clouds that we consider the edge of the planet. At the top of these clouds, the atmospheric pressure is the same as that of air on Earth. Thus to walk ... you went deeper through the planet's atmosphere, the pressure would increase and eventually you would be crushed.