SATURN

Leilana, Brittney, Flo, Daniel, and Jesse

Saturn's Atmosphere

• Scale heightComposition

• ~96% Hydrogen (H2)~3% Helium~0.4% Methane~0.01% Ammonia~0.01% Hydrogen deuteride (HD)0.000 7% EthaneIces:Ammoniawaterammonium hydrosulfide(NH4SH)

Possibility of life

• The life found on Earth could not live on Saturn, and scientists doubt that any form of life exists there.

Saturn's Rings

• Galileo was the first to see Saturn's rings in 1610, although from his telescope they resembled handles or arms. It took Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who had a more powerful telescope, to propose that Saturn had a thin, flat ring.

• The rings are generally named alphabetically in the order they were discovered. They are usually relatively close to each other, with one key exception caused by the Cassini Division, a gap some 2,920 miles (4,700 kilometers) wide. The main rings, working out from the planet, are known as C, B and A, with the Cassini Division separating B and A. The innermost is the extremely faint D ring, while the outermost to date, revealed in 2009, could fit a billion Earths within it.

Saturn's Gravitational Impact on the Solar System

• As the most massive planet in the solar system after Jupiter, the pull of Saturn's gravity has helped shape the fate of our system. It might have helped violently hurl Neptune and Uranus outward. It, along with Jupiter, might also have slung a barrage of debris toward the inner planets early in the system's history.

• The first spacecraft to reach Saturn was Pioneer 11 in 1979, flying within 13,700 miles (22,000 kilometers) of it, which discovered the planet's two of its outer rings as well as the presence of a strong magnetic field. The Voyager spacecraft discovered the planet's rings are made up of ringlets, and sent back data that led to the discovery or confirmation of the existence of nine moons.

• Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and is the second largest in the solar system with an equatorial diameter of 119,300 kilometers (74,130 miles). Much of what is known about the planet is due to the Voyager explorations in 1980-81. Saturn is visibly flattened at the poles, a result of the very fast rotation of the planet on its axis. Its day is 10 hours, 39 minutes long, and it takes 29.5 Earth years to revolve about the Sun. The atmosphere is primarily composed of hydrogen with small amounts of helium and methane. Saturn is the only planet less dense than water (about 30 percent less). In the unlikely event that a large enough ocean could be found, Saturn would float in it. Saturn's hazy yellow hue is marked by broad atmospheric banding similar to, but fainter than, that found on Jupiter

• Saturn's interior composition is primarily that of simple molecules such as hydrogen and helium, which are liquids under the high pressure environments found in the interiors of the outer planets, and not solids.

• Motions in the interior of Saturn contribute in a very special way to the development of the powerful and extensive magnetosphere of Saturn. Heat generated within Saturn contributes to the unusual motions of the atmosphere.