Saturn has fascinated society for hundreds of years being the only planet whose rings are visible from Earth. Because of its distance from the Earth, exploration was not possible until the age of robotic spacecraft. Previous studies of Saturn and its surroundings were limited to data from flybys (Lebreton & Matson 2002). The Cassini Huygens mission consisted of a combination of an orbiter and a probe to fully explore the Saturnian system.
The mission was named in honor of two astronomers who made profound discoveries about Saturn. Christian Huygens was a Dutch astronomer who invented a better lens to enhance his telescope’s abilities. He is credited with discovering Titan in 1655 and being able to correctly identify the rings of Saturn in 1656. Jean-Dominique Cassini surveyed four of Saturn’s moons and discovered the gap in its ring system later named the Cassini division in 1675. He also hypothesized that the rings consisted of large sums of small satellites all orbiting
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The first mission, Pioneer 11, launched on April 6, 1973 and arrived September 1, 1979. Pioneer 11 was able to transmit low-resolution images, discovered additional rings and moons, and temperature readings to prove that Titan is too cold to support life. The second mission, Voyager 1, was launched September 5, 1977 and arrived November 13, 1980. Voyager 1 gathered 900 images of Saturn’s moons, revealed that Titan’s composition resembles that of Earth’s ancient environment, and disclosed that Saturn’s rings formed from broken off particles of nearby comets, meteors, and its moons. Lastly, Voyager II launched August 20, 1977 and arrived August 26, 1981. Voyager II continued with the same objectives as Voyager I and was able to take an additional 1,150 images of Saturn’s moons. Although the space craft had a scan platform malfunction, it was still able to meet its objectives (Piazza,
Saturn is unique of all the planets, adorned with thousands of beautiful ringlets and has 63 moons with confirmed orbits. Fifty-three of the moons have been named, with Titan being the largest and the only one with an atmosphere. Saturn is mostly a massive ball of hydrogen and helium, much like the planet Jupiter.
In 1979, Voyager 1 discovered Jupiter’s ring system. Jupiter has three rings. Galileo spacecraft suggested that these rings are formed when meteoroids hit Jupiter’s tiny closest moons.
Saturn got its name by saturday.Saturn has rings that are made of small rocks.Saturn is 890.7 million miles away from earth. Saturn is the 6th planet from the sun. Saturn has 62,moons.Saturn is the largest planet.saturn's nickname is the ring planet Tag Archives:saturn facts
Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system, it also the fifth planet that count from the Sun. There are many interesting facts about Jupiter’s atmosphere. Jupiter has the largest planetary atmosphere in the Solar system. The composition of the atmosphere is mainly molecular hydrogen and helium. Although water exists deep in the atmosphere layer, the concentration is comparatively very small. (Mahaffy et al., 1998) Until now, there have been no satellites sent on to the Jupiter. Only eight spacecraft sent to bring back information. The eight spacecraft were Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini, and New Horizons. (Tritonfun, 2008) Among these eight spacecraft, five of them are from NASA. For this mission, an artificial manufactured satellite that functions as an orbiter will be send to the orbit of the Jupiter to study its enormous atmosphere and the weather on the Jupiter.
The panoply of Saturn’s colorful rings greeted Surina the next morning. In fact, many dazzled passengers packed the observation deck to admire the fresco of shimmering pastel pinks, grays, yellows, and browns painted by the most prolific artist of all, the creator of the universe. Orbiting in the magical ringlets of Saturn were the icy rocks from the blown up remnants of the ancient moons that reflected the sunlight to produce the glittering pastel colors. Similar to Jupiter, Saturn was a gas giant of primarily hydrogen and helium gasses without a solid surface, on which fierce winds, lightning storms, and bitter cold temperatures raged. Titan, the biggest of the fifty-three moons, was even larger than Mercury and shrouded in the
Intriguing, extravagant, and extraordinary; these are all words that describe Saturn’s Hexagon. It’s first visitation was the Voyager mission from 1981-1982. Then, since 2006 onward, Cassini has taken informative photos of this amazing feature of Jupiter. It (Cassini) has taken infrared photos of this great phenomenon. Also, recently Cassini has been able to take photos thanks to the sunlight. The great process will yield intriguing data.
The stated purpose of the Voyager 2 was to analyse the outer planets of four planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The probe's mission was to explore the Jovian system, Saturnian system, Uranium system, and mainly the Neptunian system. Nasa also wanted to further voyager 2’s investigation to the unreachable ends of the Solar system. The launch of voyager 2 began on August 20th, 1977.
Titan was the first known moon of Saturn, and the sixth planetary satellite we’ve discovered. Titan’s diameter is 3,200 miles, about
The rings of Saturn are more spectacular than those of any other planet. Although this planet’s rings are very wide, extending from the top of its atmosphere to well beyond the orbits of its closest moons, they are very thin, measuring no more than a few kilometers (about a mile) in thickness (“Great Space Place”). The Pioneer 11 flyby made several discoveries about the rings. The rings are made of
The Rings of Saturn make Saturn unique. Unlike other planets with only a few rings, Saturn has thousands of colorful rings are made of mostly rock and ice. The rings stretch 282,000 kilometers across but are only 100 meters (0.1 km in comparison) high at
“Furthermore, the icy rocks in the rings reflect the sunlight to produce the vivid colors. Saturn’s rings span two hundred and eighty-two kilometers, whereas Spes’ rings stretch a hundred and fifty thousand kilometers across. The immense size of these rings is primarily due to this planet’s relative youth of only three million years in contrast to Saturn’s age of four and a half billion years. Eventually, the icy rocks in outer rings of Spes will coalesce to form moons, similar to the fifty-three moons of Saturn. In other words, the ring system will slowly whittle away over the millennia, leaving only the inner bands. At present, Spes has a single moon on the periphery of the ring system. We can also see the three radiant suns in the
The planet Jupiter has always been a point of interest for mankind, being the largest of the planets and named after the king of the Roman gods. Since Galileo pointed his small, simple telescope at the gas giant, scientists and astronomers have been on the journey to discover the secrets the planet holds. Launched in August, 2011, the Juno Spacecraft will be able to peek through the clouds of mystery that shroud Jupiter, and improve on mankind’s view of the great planet.
Some of the earliest scientists such as Galileo Galilei are the main reason we know so much about planets. In fact, Galileo was the first person to observe Saturn with a telescope and come up with new discoveries about it. Though, today instead of using telescopes we use technology to send robotic space probes to gather information or create discoveries in our solar system. One of the very first space probes that was sent to Saturn was Pioneer 11 on April 6, 1973. Other space probes that have passed Saturn are Voyager 1 and Voyager
Even though all the Jovian planets have rings, when most people are asked to name a planet with rings it is Saturn that seems to spring to their minds.
Saturn’s rings are made up out of dust, rock, and ice from out in space.