simple but a good one

1. Saturn
“The Real Lord of the Rings”

2. Basic Facts
6th Planet from the Sun
2nd Largest Planet in the
Solar System
7 thin, flat rings
62 Moons

3. Saturn the Name
 Roman god of agriculture and wealth
 Father of Ceres, Jupiter, Pluto, and
Neptune
 Ruled during the Golden Age of Men
 Saturn represents limits of control as it
was thought to be the limit of the Solar
System

4. Ancient Observations
 Farthest planet prehistoric astronomers knew (Distance from
the sun: 9.5 times as far as Earth)
(1 Solar Revolution: 29.5 earth years)
 Used in mythology
 It was the planet that can be seen by Earth with the naked eye,
but the rings cannot.

5. Where is Saturn
Located?
 It orbits the Sun at a distance of
about 1.4 billion km (870 million
mi). Saturn is about 9.5 times as
far from the Sun as the Earth.
 Saturn is almost twice as far
from the Sun as is Jupiter, the
fifth planet in the Solar System.

6. How Big is Saturn?
 2nd largest planet in the Solar
System
 95 Earth masses
 “Gas Giant” along with Jupiter,
Uranus and Neptune
 Diameter 120,540km (10x Earth)

8. If Saturn is so much more massive than
Earth, Why is it said that Saturn could
float in water?
Lowest density of all the planets
1/10 the density of Earth
2/3 dense as water
Saturn would float in water!

9. WHAT IS SATURN MADE OF?
 Primarily a ball of gas with no solid surface.
 94% Hydrogen, 6% Helium, small amounts of methane
(CH4) and ammonia (NH3)
 Detailed analysis of Saturn’s gravitational field leads to
astronomers to believe that the deepest interior of Saturn
must consist of a molten rock core. (same size as Earth but
more massive)

12. structure

13. Saturn’s Surface
 Saturn is a giant ball of gas
 Believed to have no solid surface
 Inner core of iron and rocky material
 Outer core of ammonia, methane, and
water
 Liquid metallic hydrogen surrounds outer
core
 Hydrogen and helium in a viscous form

14. Saturn’s Atmosphere
 The surface and
atmosphere merge
(hydrogen and helium)
 Dense clouds cover Saturn
 Difference in temperature
and altitude cause
patterns and color
differences in cloud tops
 Hexagon clouds at North
Pole

16. Saturn’s Orbit
 Aphelion ~ 10.1 AU ; Perihelion ~ 9.0 AU
 Period of Orbit – 29.46 Earth years
 Axis tilt of 27 degrees
 Eccentricity of .056
 Rotation is 2nd fastest of known planets
 Saturn rotates ~ 10 hours 39 minutes

17. How Long is a Year on
Saturn?
 It takes 29.5 Earth days to travel once around the sun. So, 1
Saturn year is about 30 Earth Years.

18. Shape of Saturn
 Rapid rotation causes the planet to bulge
 Oblate spheroid – flattened at poles and bulges at
equator Rings

19. Why isn’t Saturn the same
color as Jupiter?
Saturn: World of white
and pastel yellow cloud
layers
Jupiter: Bright
yellows, oranges, and
reds in exotic swirls
and storms
 Near the top of the
atmosphere, ammonia
becomes cold enough
to crystallize into
ice particle cloud.
But Saturn is colder
than Jupiter, so the
colorful ammonia
cloud are deeper in
the atmosphere.

21. Discovery
 Galileo discovered rings 1610, though believed
they were moons on either side
 Christian Huygens first coined “Rings” 1665

22. Saturn’s Rings
 Discovered by Galileo (1600s)
 Rings tilt at same angle as
equator
 ~20m thick
 93% water ice composition,
7% amorphous carbon
 7 rings made up of thousands
of ringlets, made up of
billions of ice particles
 Particles range in size from
dust to a car

24. 2 Main Ring Theories
 Theory 1
 Remnants of destroyed moon of Saturn
 Theory 2
 Rings left over from original nebular material that formed Saturn
 Some ice comes from the moon Enceladus’ ice volcanoes

25. Temperature
 Tilt of axis causes seasons on Saturn
 Each season = 7.5 Earth years (Saturn
takes 29x longer than Earth to revolve)
 Top of clouds is -175 degrees C (-285 F)
 Below clouds is hot – planet gives off 2.5x
the heat it receives from the Sun

26. Moons
 62 Moons
 Largest, Titan (diameter 5,150km) is larger than
Mercury and Pluto and contains an atmosphere

27. Unlucky Saturn
 In Astrology, Saturn is blamed for all
things sad, unfortunate, and terrible

28. SPACE EXPLORATIONS
1.Pioneer 1 in 1979
2.Voyagers 1
3.Voyagers 2 (1981-1982)
4.Cassini-Huygens in 2004-“1st
Spacecraft to land on a moon
other than Earth’s moon.”

29. PIONEER 1

30. VOYAGER 1 & 2