saturn vishesh, tevon and karina. geological features five layers: hot solid inner core of iron and...
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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!