Saturn Trivia

1. Much of what we know about Saturn and its rings we learnt from an unmanned spacecraft sent to Saturn in 1997. The spacecraft was named after two scientists who had made important discoveries about Saturn. What's the name of this spacecraft?

From Quiz Lord of the Rings

Answer: Cassini-Huygens

Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens was the first person to discover that Saturn had a ring. He also discovered Saturn's largest moon Titan. Giovanni Cassini discovered four more moons: Japetus (or Iapetus), Rhea, Tethys and Dione. He also discovered the biggest opening within the rings, which we now call the Cassini Division. In 1997 NASA launched the Cassini-Huyghens mission. After a seven year journey the spacecraft entered in orbit around Saturn. The spacecraft consists of two parts: the Cassini orbiter and the Huygens probe. In December 2004 Huygens separated from the orbiter. In January 2005 the probe started its descent towards Titan's surface. It revealed that there are lakes and rivers on Titan, only they are made of liquid methane rather than water. Cassini stayed in orbit around Saturn and has sent us invaluable information about the planet, the moons and the rings.

From Quiz Saturn, the Earth Star

Answer: 0.687

At such a density, Saturn is about 8 times less dense than Earth. Despite this, it still has a volume 764 times greater than Earth's and a mass 92 times that of Earth.

From Quiz Twenty Questions About Saturn

Answer: Rings

Saturn's rings were actually detected by Galileo. He noted Saturn's odd shape, but he couldn't determine what was causing it. It was not until 1659 that Christiaan Huygens figured out that they were rings, although at first no one believed him. The rings are made up of rocks and ice particles.

From Quiz Lord of the Rings

Answer: Chunks of ice

The rings of Saturn look massive but they're not. Each ring consists of thousands of smaller rings that consist of billions of chunks of mostly ice. Most of these ice particles are smaller than 1 centimetre, but some are larger with a diameter up to 1 km. Although the rings are very old they're still very bright. During their orbit around Saturn the particles constantly collide what makes them clump up and then fall apart again. This way shiny new ice is created all the time. Because of this the rings still reflect the sunlight as much as during the time they were created.

From Quiz Saturn, the Earth Star

Answer: Ammonia

The ammonia crystals are typically found in the upper levels of Saturn's atmosphere, while in the lower levels, it is more common to find things such as ammonia hydrosulfide.

From Quiz Twenty Questions About Saturn

Answer: 0.69

Saturn's density is so low, that if you could find a body of water large enough, Saturn would float! No other planet in our Solar System would float.

From Quiz Saturn, the Earth Star

Answer: Hexagon

This storm was first seen by Voyager 1 and its existence was confirmed by the Cassini probe. According to the Hubble space telescope, there is not a similar storm at the south pole.

From Quiz Twenty Questions About Saturn

Answer: 95

The core of Saturn is rock, surrounded by a liquid metallic hydrogen layer, just like Jupiter.

From Quiz Twenty Questions About Saturn

Answer: Pioneer 11

Pioneer 11 visited Saturn in 1979. Pioneer 10 only went to Jupiter. The Pioneer spacecraft (Pioneer 10 and 11 both went to Jupiter) were nearly fried at Jupiter by the ions trapped in Jupiter's magnetic field. This info was important to the success of the Voyager missions.

From Quiz One Saturn Deserves Another

Answer: More than 50

At last count Saturn had 53 confirmed moons but there are 29 others that have been marked as "provisional" pending their official confirmation and naming protocol. The moons range in size from being the size of a large sporting stadium through to, in the case of Titan, being larger than the planet Mercury. Whilst all of them have their own story to tell, Titan is the most interesting one. It is the second largest moon, behind Jupiter's Ganymede, in our solar system, but it is the only one that we're aware of that has an atmosphere, made up of nitrogen and methane. As far as objects in our system go, it is the closest to being Earth-like that we know. A lot of this was confirmed with the landing of the Huygens probe, as part of the Cassini mission, in the late 1990s. Data retrieved from this provided evidence of rain, seasonal variations clouds and ice volcanoes.

From Quiz Lord of the Rings

Answer: Mimas

The Cassini Division is the big gap between the A ring and B ring, first discovered by Giovanni Cassini. Mimas orbits Saturn far outside the rings. Particles in the Cassini Division orbit Saturn twice every time Mimas orbits it once. This means the force of gravity exerted on those particles is regular. This alters the orbit of the particles in the Cassini Division, which throws them out and cleans up the gap. This phenomenon is called orbital resonance. The three wrong answers are moons of Uranus.

From Quiz Saturn, the Earth Star

Answer: They swap orbits every four years

This is because both satellites orbit Saturn at approximately the same distance, give or take a few thousand kilometers. This distance is considered incredibly close for objects in space.

From Quiz Twenty Questions About Saturn

Answer: 29

Saturn is so far away from the Sun, some 1,429,000,000 kilometers, that it takes over 29 years to orbit the Sun. Saturn is over nine times further away from the Sun than the Earth.

From Quiz One Saturn Deserves Another

Answer: 10

Essentially we're asking how long does it take Saturn to turn once on its axis and the answer is 10 hours and 42 minutes. That is quick. Basically, you'd enjoy a little bit more than two days on Saturn in comparison to Earth. In case you're wondering which planet is faster, it is Jupiter, which will turn once every 9 hours and 55 minutes. While the Earth takes a year to orbit the sun, Saturn takes a tad longer, its orbit is roughly 29.4 Earth years in duration. The other interesting thing is that Saturn's axis has a similar tilt to that of the Earth, which means that it will experience seasons.

From Quiz Lord of the Rings

Answer: Shepherd moons

Many of the complex structures in the ring system are caused by orbital resonance between the particles in the rings and Saturn's moons. The small moons within the ring system whose gravity influences the shape of the rings and the gaps between them are called 'shepherd moons'. Pan, Daphnis and Atlas are examples of such moons.

From Quiz Saturn, the Earth Star

Answer: Mimas and Tethys

The Cassini space probe, which was designed to orbit and study Saturn and its moons, discovered these images on the moons. Coincidentally, a large crater on Mimas looks like a power pellet, an item that Pac-Man can eat in the games. The crater is positioned just so that it appears Pac-Man will eat it. To satiate curiosity, here is an image of the thermal scans: http://i.space.com/images/i/000/023/961/iFF/saturn-pac-man-moons-tethys-mimas-1.jpg?1354025731

From Quiz One Saturn Deserves Another

Answer: The temperature remains stable for significant periods

Saturn is a cool planet. With an average temperature of -285 degrees Fahrenheit it is definitely "way cool". Because of its distance from the sun, the majority of its heating comes from its own core (almost twice as much as that from the sun) and, as a result, the temperatures remain quite stable. There will be fluctuations as you move from its equator to the planet's poles but these differences are considered to be small. Yes, the planet does have seasons thanks to an axial tilt similar to Earth's. However, in comparison to Saturn, our temperatures will vary greatly between summer and winter because of our reliance on the sun for heat. The atmosphere on Saturn is predominantly hydrogen with lesser amounts of helium and even lesser quantities of methane but these have minimal impact on temperature variations. Saturn has winds that reach 1,000 miles per hour and the planet does have storms. The best example is the Great White Spot, which will occur (approximately) every thirty years and is a result of cooling of water vapours in the atmosphere. This varies temperatures but, when extended over a Saturn year, this impact is minimal.

From Quiz Lord of the Rings

Answer: Prometheus

Prometheus and Pandora are the shepherd moons of Saturn's F ring. The two moons have a gravitational influence each other's orbits. When Prometheus comes close to the F ring its gravity pulls particles towards it, thereby changing the ring into a unique spiral shape.

From Quiz Saturn, the Earth Star

Answer: 1800 kilometers/hour

These fast winds are the cause of a color phenomenon occasionally displayed in Saturn's northern hemisphere. Occasionally, the normally yellow color of Saturn's clouds will appear a pale blue due to the speed of these winds.

From Quiz Twenty Questions About Saturn

Answer: Hydrogen and Helium

Like Jupiter, Saturn's atmosphere consists mainly of Hydrogen (about 75 percent)and Helium (about 25 percent).

From Quiz Lord of the Rings

Answer: Tiger stripes

Enceladus is a small moon made of mainly ice. The northern hemisphere has a lot of craters, as you might expect of an icy moon. The southern hemisphere however has a smooth surface with cracks and gullies. Near the south pole there are four parallel cracks with a length of approximately 130 km (80 mi). Those cracks are named the 'tiger stripes' and are similar to tectonic fault lines which we find on earth. The Cassini orbiter has shown that there are hot areas beneath the tiger stripes, although hot is relative in this case. Whereas the average temperature on Enceladus's surface is -200°C (-328° F) the area around the tiger stripes is 'only' -140°C (-220° F).

From Quiz Saturn, the Earth Star

Answer: Slow gravitational compression

This is known as the Kelvin-Helmholtz mechanism. This is because it is so massive, that it compresses upon itself, shrinking in diameter a little bit every year. Jupiter undergoes a similar process.

From Quiz One Saturn Deserves Another

Answer: Christian Huygens

Huygens was not the first to sight the rings of Saturn. That honour lay with Galileo Galilei who spotted them in 1610. Thing is, he had no idea what they were and, when he later wrote to the Duke of Tuscany, he informed him that the system was three planets that moved as one and almost touched one another. He called the smaller planets "Saturn's ears". Two years later, when the Earth passed through Saturn's ring plane Galileo, couldn't see the other "two planets" and declared that "Saturn has swallowed his children". He was totally thrown out the following year when the Earth moved out of the plane and he could see them again. Some forty years later, in 1655, Christian Huygens and his brother Constantijn, were able to get a better look at the planet using a much stronger refracting telescope that Christian had designed. This led him to surmise that Saturn did have rings and that those rings were detached from the planet. He would publish his theory in his 1659 book "Systema Saturnium", which also included his discovery of Saturn's moon, Titan.

From Quiz Lord of the Rings

Answer: From ice crystals ejected by geysers on Enceladus

Pictures taken by Cassini show huge fountains coming out of Enceladus's tiger stripes. This proves there must be liquid water under Enceladus's icy surface. The geysers on Enceladus are constantly active and shoot off water vapour thousands of kilometres into the sky. Once into space the water vapour immediately freezes into tiny ice crystals. Some of it falls back on Enceladus but most it enters in orbit around Saturn. This is how Saturn's very faint E ring is formed. It is very surprising that such a small moon so far away from the sun has any geological activity. Most scientist believe this is caused by the elliptical shape of Enceladus's orbit. Sometimes Enceladus is far away from Saturn, sometimes it is close. The gravity that pulls on Enceladus from Saturn changes as Enceladus goes around Saturn, which means the moon flexes and heats up just enough to have some geological activity.

From Quiz Saturn, the Earth Star

Answer: Pluto

Another 3 and a half decades would pass before a probe finally went to Pluto, that being New Horizons. It was decided that it would be a better option to study Titan than Pluto because Voyager 1 did not have what was considered sufficient equipment to study Pluto and relay back the data.

From Quiz Twenty Questions About Saturn

Answer: 1 kilometer

Saturn's rings are incredibly thin. Even though they are at least 250,000 kilometers in diameter they're only about one kilometer thick. If you could lump all of the ring material into one body it would be about 100 kilometers across, very small indeed.

From Quiz One Saturn Deserves Another

Answer: Gian Cassini

There are a lot of gaps in Saturn's rings though we would have struggled to have known this if it weren't for the space probes sent out into that region of space. Of the few that were observable/identifiable via telescopes the biggest gap was located between Saturn's Ring A and Ring B. This one is some 4,800 kilometres wide and has been named the Cassini Division. (Note: There is a Huygen's Gap at the inner edge of the Cassini Division but this is, at the most, only 400 kilometres wide. So, why is this gap in there? First of all it is important to understand the make up of Saturn's rings. They are made up of a fairly complex series of ringlets which are, in turn, made up of countless bits of ice chunks. These chunks could be the size of dust particles to the size of a football oval. They have originated from pieces of debris from comets and shattered moons that have been broken up by Saturn's immensely powerful gravitational field, well before they could reach the planet. These particles are impacted upon by the gravitational pull of the nearby moons of Saturn. In the case of the Cassini Division, that moon is Mimas and it is Mimas that is responsible for pulling out any particles within that division, thus, leaving the gap. The Italian born Cassini was an influential figure in the study of Saturn, though not all of his theories were on the mark. He discovered the gap between Rings A and B, identified that the rings were made, mainly, of frozen water and he felt that the rings may have been as old as the solar system, some 4.5 billion years old. The fly-bys of Voyager during the 1980s seemed to indicate that they could be as young as 100 million years old.

From Quiz Lord of the Rings

Answer: No, all the gas giants have rings

The three other gas giants (Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune) also have rings. In 1977 Saturn's rings were no longer unique as Uranus's rings were discovered. Although not nearly as spectacular as the one around Saturn, Uranus's ring system is more complex than those of Jupiter and Neptune. Uranus's rings are also much darker than those of Saturn. The rings of Jupiter were discovered by Voyager 1 in 1979. Neptune was the last planet to have its rings discovered, in 1984. The rings of Jupiter and Neptune are very faint and consist mainly of dust. The inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) have no rings.

From Quiz Twenty Questions About Saturn

Answer: 120,000

Over 9 Earth's would fit across Saturn's diameter.

From Quiz One Saturn Deserves Another

Answer: Cassini-Huygens mission

The Cassini-Huygens mission, commonly referred to as simply Cassini, was not the first mission to Saturn, but it was the first one to enter its orbit. It sat there from 2004 through until 2017 transmitting valuable data back to Earth. On board the Cassini was the Huygens probe which was landed on the moon Titan, making it the first human made object to land on a world in the outer solar system. As the NASA site records it, they were able to see "astounding worlds where methane rivers run to a methane sea and where jets of ice and gas are blasting material into space from a liquid water ocean that might harbor the ingredients for life". By 2017 the fuel cells on the Cassini were depleted so it was given one final mission. On September 15, 2017, it was sent hurtling into Saturn's atmosphere, transmitting data back to Earth right until its very end.

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Last Updated Apr 22 2024 11:04 AM

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