Saturn

Sarah Harris, Jonathan Berger, Austin Jorrey, Ben Mackenzie, Shannon Markstrom

Saturn SymbolThe symbol for Saturn is referred to as an ancient scythe or sickle.

How Saturn Got Its NameSaturn got its name from the Greek God Kronos. Saturn is also named for the Roman God of agriculture and harvest, Saturnus.

Saturnus

Kronos

Orbit and RotationNumber of days to orbit the sun: 10,759Perihelion: 1.35 billion kmAphelion: 1.51 billion kmLength of one day: 10 hours 39 minutes

Who Discovered Saturn

Saturn was discovered in 1610 by italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. He found Saturn while looking through his telescope.

Distances

Saturn is;★the sixth planet from the sun★9.58 AU from the Sun (1.43x10EE9

km)★9 AU from Earth (approx.

1.3x10EE9 km)

Planet Measurements

Mass: 568.3*10^24 kgVolume: 8.2713x10EE14 km^3Equatorial Circumference: 3.7868x10EE5Mean Density: 687 kg/m^3Gravity: 10.44 m/s^2

Planet Appearance

★Saturn has yellow and gold stripes★Saturn is large enough to hold 760

Earths. More massive than any other planet except Jupiter.

★Has 60 moons★No surface but a rocky inner core★The shape is flattened at the poles

and bulging at the equator

Weather and Wind

★Most violent storms in the solar system

★Rains diamonds★Wind speeds exceed 1,000 mph

★Ice can be lifted 100 miles into the atmosphere

Roche Limit

★Distance from a planet in which materials are destroyed and turned into debris that form the rings.

★Calculation to define Roche Limit

Roche Limit

Formation of Rings

★Roche Limit is the cause of the formation of the rings.

★Broken bits of objects collected in levels to form the rings.

Rings

★ Rings made of ice, dust, and rock.★ They consist of countless small particles, ranging in size from micrometers to meters obit Saturn.

★ The rings are not perfect circles but instead have bends in them caused by the pull of gravity by from its nearby moons.

★ The rings are named by letters. They are not in alphabetical order but in the order they were discovered. (The actual order, starting from Saturn, is -- D, C, B, A, F, G and E)★ Its ring system consists of a number of ice chunks in which sizes can be compared to dust particles estimated to be 10 meters big. The spaces in between these chunks are known to be large enough to enable probes to cross through them without any damage.

★ The largest ring is known to be about 180,000 miles across.

Exploration

★ There was a flyby mission launched in 1979, it was called Pioneer 11. This probe was sent to saturn to study magnetic fields, the solar winds and the atmosphere. It also discovered additional rings and moons that were not previously known.

Exploration Continued:

In 1980 and 1981 the Voyager 1 and 2 discovered many new satellites and discovered the complexity of Saturns ring. It also revealed high levels of nitrogen in the Titan’s atmosphere.

Voyager 2

Voyager 1

Exploration Continued:

The Cassini-Huygens Probe that was launched in 1997 reached Saturn on July 1st 2004. It was a 4 year journey. This orbiter should help understand Saturn's magnetosphere, the interactions with satellites, interaction with rings and the interaction with solar wind. It will also inform us about the planets atmosphere and internal structure and how the rings are formed.

Habitability

★ If a human traveled to Saturn, it wouldn’t be habitable for them. Saturn has very harsh conditions.

★ First, they would freeze. The

temperature there is -178 degrees celsius.

★ Human life on Saturn would also suffocate, Saturn's atmosphere is mostly made of hydrogen and helium. Humans need oxygen to survive.

★ They would also starve, the only food on the planet would be microorganisms, which isn’t enough for humans to survive.

Future Human Travel

Some problems sending humans to Saturn:★ It would take a lot of fuel to get there, millions and millions

of gallons of it.★ It is not possible to keep the engines running throughout

the trip. It is also very expensive to do this because it takes approximately 6 years to get there and 6 years to get back.

★ The spaceship also wouldn’t be able to land on saturn because there isn’t a solid crust. It is mostly made of the gases hydrogen and helium.

Future Human Travel Continued:★ Everything would behave differently on Saturn, because of

the extremely cold temperature (-178 degrees celsius) some of the equipment would be frozen and the spacesuits wouldn’t be flexible.

★ Because of the long amount of time that it takes to get there, astronauts would become very weak. They would also weigh 95 times more on Saturn than on earth. causing them to be killed by their own weight.

The solutions are being found out still, right now there isn’t any practical way to send humans to Saturn.

Terraforming

Here are some modifications that would be needed in order for humans to live on Saturn:★ Saturn would need to be a solid planet in order

for a spaceship to land and for humans to be able to walk around.

★ There would need to be an oxygen and a good food supply source on the planet.

★ The living conditions also would need to be changed. The temperature would have to be like it is on Earth. Not extremely cold.

Works Cited

★ http://www.weather.com/news/science/diamonds-rain-down-saturn-and-jupiter-20131009

★ http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/april/nasa-space-assets-detect-ocean-inside-saturn-moon/#.VEZQ0iLF_To

★ http://science.howstuffworks.com/rings-of-saturn.htm★ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roche_limit#Determining_the_Roche_limit★ http://www.space.com/48-saturn-the-solar-systems-major-ring-bearer.html★ http://aboutsaturn.blogspot.com/★ www.cnes.fr★ http://planetfacts.org/what-does-saturn-look-like/★ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_(mythology)