Saturn

    Saturn, the second largest planet in the solar system, has roughly 764 times the volume of earth and is 95 times more massive. Its overall composition like Jupiter’s is mostly hydrogen and helium, with methane, ammonia, and ethane in the upper atmosphere. The colors in the atmosphere are not as brilliant as on Jupiter, and it is harder to see the features. This is because Saturn is colder, and a layer of white ammonia clouds blocks our view. Saturn’s interior is probably very similar to that of Jupiter.

     Like Jupiter, Saturn gives off a lot more heat than it receives from the sun. Scientists believe that this is because the helium, which is heavier than hydrogen, is raining out of the atmosphere and sinking to the core, releasing heat. In essence, Saturn is still forming!

     Although all of the gas giants have ring, Saturn’s rings are the largest. Saturn’s rings start near the top of Saturn’s atmosphere and extend out 136,000 km, yet they are only a few hundred meters thick. The rings consist of icy particles that range in size from a few cm to several meters across

Saturn has a total of 18 known moons. Most of these moons are small bodies made mostly of water ice with some rocky material. The largest satellites, Titan, was discovered in 1655 by Christiaan Huygens. In 1980, the Voyager 1 spacecraft flew past Titan and discovered a hazy orange atmosphere, similar to what Earth’s atmosphere mat have been like before life began to evolve. In 1997, NASA launched the Cassini spacecraft to study Saturn and its moons, including Titan. The Cassini mission includes a probe, called the Huygens probes, that will parachute through Titan’s thick atmosphere and land on its frozen surface. By studying the “primordial soup “ of hydrocarbons on Titan, scientists hope to answer some of the question about how life began on earth.