10 Facts That Prove Saturn Is An Extraordinary Planet

Saturn is a remarkable planet with its rings, rings, naked eye, and satellites. In this article, we have included 10 extraordinary and interesting information about Saturn.

Saturn, the second largest planet of the Solar System, is among the most interesting and remarkable planets thanks to its rings and appearance. This magnificent Saturn planet is also known as the “Jewel of the Solar System”. Saturn, which is the planet with the highest number of satellites with 82 satellites, is expected to increase further in the coming years with the discoveries made.

Saturn has many distinctive features compared to other planets. In this article, we have included 10 information proving that Saturn is an extraordinary planet.

Features of Saturn:

Orbital period: 29 years
Diameter: 116.460 km
Distance to Earth: 1.195 billion km
Distance to Sun: 1.426 billion km
Satellites: 82

Saturn gets its name from Kronos in Greek mythology. Saturn, also known as Turkish Sekendiz, was formerly known as Zühal. Saturn, which has a volume 700 times larger than the Earth’s volume, is the sixth closest planet to the Sun. Saturn, which also has a large size, comes second after Jupiter in terms of size.

It is among the remarkable features of Saturn that it can be observed with the naked eye like Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter planets. The reason for this is that it consists of ice, which allows it to reflect the light falling on it immediately.

10 facts that prove Saturn is an extraordinary planet:

Saturn is the least dense planet in the Solar System.
Saturn has a flattened shape.
The first astronomers thought Saturn’s rings had satellites.
Saturn was visited only 4 times by spacecraft.
Saturn has 82 satellites.
The length of a day in Saturn was a mystery until recently.
The rings of Saturn can be as old as Saturn or younger.
The rings of Saturn disappear from time to time.
Saturn is the most distant planet visible with the naked eye.
There may be life near Saturn.
Saturn is the least dense planet in the Solar System:

Saturn, mostly composed of hydrogen, is even less dense than water. These hydrogen layers that it has concentrate towards the center of Saturn and eventually form a warm inner core.

Saturn has a flattened shape:

Thanks to its low density, fluid nature of the planet and the high speed of rotation around it, Saturn has a wide ellipsoid appearance at the equator and a flattened ellipsoid at the poles, and we can easily observe it when looking at a picture of Saturn.

While the distance from the center to the poles is 54.000 km, the distance from the center to the equator is 60.300 km. In other words, the places on the equator are about 6,300 km from the center.

The first astronomers thought Saturn’s rings were satellite:

In 1610, when Galileo first looked at Saturn with his primitive telescope, he could see Saturn and his rings, but he did not know exactly what he was looking for. Those rings might have been two large satellites standing on either side of Saturn.

In 1655, Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens used a better and improved telescope to observe Saturn, and realized that satellites standing on both sides of Saturn were actually rings. At the same time, Huygens was the first to discover Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn.

Saturn was visited only 4 times by spacecraft:

Only 4 spacecraft sent from Earth visited Saturn. However, none of them has been able to land on the surface of the planet because Saturn does not have a solid surface. The first of these spacecraft was the Pioneer 11, which flew 20,000 km from Saturn in 1979. He then visited Voyager 1 in 1980 and then Voyager 2 Saturn in 1981. Finally, in 2004, Cassini reached Saturn and ended his 7-year duty.

Saturn has 82 satellites:

Saturn has 82 discovered satellites. Some of them are quite large, like Titan, the second largest satellite of the Solar System. However, most satellites owned by Saturn are small in size, only a few kilometers in diameter, and some do not even have official names.

The length of a day in Saturn was a mystery until recently:

As is known, Saturn is largely made up of gas, which results in the entire planet not rotating at the same speed. Therefore, it was very difficult to determine the speed of Saturn’s return. NASA scientists used the data from the spacecraft called Cassini to calculate this time, and calculated that a day in Saturn was 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds long.

Saturn’s rings can be as old as Saturn or younger

The rings owned by Saturn consist largely of ice particles. Based on this, scientists conclude that the rings have formed together with Saturn since the beginning of the Solar System, about 4.54 billion years ago. But astronomers still can’t fully unravel Saturn’s rings.

Rings disappear from time to time:

Saturn’s axis is tilted just like Earth’s. From the angle we see, we see the changing position of Saturn. Sometimes the rings are in a position that can be seen completely, but at other times the rings are only visible at the edges. This causes Saturn’s rings to appear as if they are disappearing.

The most distant planet visible with the naked eye:

Saturn is one of the five planets that can be seen with the naked eye. If you look at Saturn with the help of a telescope or binoculars, you can easily see the rings around it. The reason for this is that Saturn is too far from Earth.

There may be life near Saturn:

Saturn is too unfavorable for supporting its living life. However, we may not be able to say the same for Enceladus, the sixth largest satellite of Saturn. The spacecraft named Cassini, sent by NASA, discovered various water sources from Enceladus’ south pole. It is planned to send a specially designed spacecraft for this mission to determine whether there is life in Enseladus in a short time.