The Planet Saturn

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The planet Saturn is a beautiful object to view through a telescope.

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The Planet Saturn

Saturn, the second largest planet in our solar system. Saturn is one of the most beautiful sites to view in a telescope. The most striking feature of Saturn is the spectacular ring system. Saturn shares many features with its even larger Gas Giant neighbor Jupiter, but has various unique features in its own right.

Saturn's core is composed liquid rock. This core is surrounded by a layer of liquid hydrogen. It is under such high pressure that the nature of the hydrogen changes, and is able to conduct electricity like metal. This generates the planet's magnetic field.

The layer on top of this is ordinary liquid hydrogen. Next, the hydrogen thins out into the gaseous atmosphere. It is composed of mainly hydrogen and helium with trace amounts of methane, water, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide.

From Pioneer investigations, scientists discovered that the magnetic field of Saturn is aligned with the planet's axis of rotation, unlike the fields of Jupiter and Earth. This discovery has led to revisions in the theories on the origin of magnetic fields, which had previously relied on an offset between the field's axis and the planet's rotation axis to produce large planetary magnetic fields.

Saturn was the god of agriculture, he was called Cronus by the Greeks. He is the son of Uranus, and father of Jupiter. Saturn over threw his father to become king of the gods, but was then over thrown himself by his son Jupiter.

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