Jupiter may be the king of our solar system but Saturn and its majestic ring system and camel surface coloration is
certainly the queen of the same system. Although Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system, it has the
distinction of also being the least dense (so much so it would float on water). It's atmosphere is similar to Jupiter's
in that it is composed primarily of hydrogen gas in the upper atmosphere with liquid hydrogen surrounding a rocky core
at lower altitudes. Saturn is perhaps the most unique of the solar system bodies thanks to the majestic set of rings
that surround it and which is clearly visible from earth. Composed of icy particles, the ring system is really composed
of three rings: the bright A and B rings which are separated by the Cassini Division (visible in most scopes) and the
third semitransparent ring C (Crepe Ring).
As of mid-2005, Saturn was second only to Jupiter in the number of moons which orbit the planet, namely 49 (see
here). Three
of the most prominent and largest of these moons are Mimas, Enceladus and Titan. The former is most recognized
for Crater Herschel, an impact remnant which covers about 1/3rd the diameter of Mimas and measures 140 km cross and 10
km deep. Enceladus is the most reflective of any of the moons in the solar system and is believed to be due to the icy
particles which have engulfed this body as a result of its proximity to Saturn's ring system. Titan is the largest of
Saturn's moons and the second largest of any of the moons in the solar system. It is the only know moon with an atmosphere
and is composed primarily of nitrogen (similar to earth). Only four satellite missions have reached Saturn to date,
namely Pioneer 11 (1973), Voyager 1 and 2 (1977) and Cassini-Huygens (1997) (additional details
here).
Body: Saturn Mean Distance (A.U.): 9.539 Equatorial Diam (km): 120,000 Mass: 95.16 x Earth Volume: 752 x Earth Orbital Period: 29.457 yr Number of Moons: 49 Orbital Eccentricity: 0.056 Orbital Inclination: 2.5° Albedo: 0.47 |
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Date: Nov 07, 2004 02:53 - 03:04 UT+2 Location: Athens, Greece Equipment: Celestron 14"/f11 SCT Losmandy G-11 GEM TeleVue 2x Big Barlow Philips ToUCam PCVC 740k Video Imaging: 15 AVI (4654 frames)
Software: K3CCDTools V1.0.6.460 AVI Joiner V1.02 Registax V2.1.0.0 Photoshop V6 Processing: Selective Sampling (33/4654) Registration & Alignment Average Combine Brightness/Contrast Unsharp Masking Gaussian Blur Histogram Adjustment JPG Compression |