Why is saturn noticeably oblate

The reason Saturn lost very little of its original atmosphere is due to its. Saturn is noticeably oblate because. The atmosphere of Saturn is composed mostly of:.

The wind speeds found in the bands and zones of Saturn, compared to those on Jupiter, are about. Why does the atmosphere of Saturn appear to have only half the helium content of Jupiter? Why does Saturn radiate even more excess energy than Jupiter? What did the Voyager mission discover about the main rings of Saturn? They are composed of tens of thousands of narrow ringlets. The reason the rings of Saturn exist is because:.

The Roche limit is the point at which. They are made of lots of fresh, bright icy particles from a recent breakup. Shepherd satellites are defined as:. It contains several ringlets.

While Galileo saw Saturn as a changing oval, the real nature of the rings was discovered by:. A moon that goes inside the Roche Limit will. The shepherd moons keep the ring particles in their rings by.

When Voyager 2 was routed to fly by Saturn, it was originally the plan to have the satellite fly through the Cassini gap. Why would this have been a bad idea? If satellite A is in a resonance with satellite B, this means that. Why do scientists think the Cassini spacecraft did not observe "spokes" on the rings during the first year of its visit with Saturn? To see the "spokes", a particular alignment of the rings with the Sun is necessary and it took one year for that alignment to reoccur.

Shepherd moons were discovered because scientists hypothesized their existence after observing. How many large moons does Saturn have? Titan is an interesting moon because:. What evidence suggests that Enceladus has ongoing geological activity? Lack of impact craters on much of its surface and evidence of ice flows from possible volcanic activity.

The atmosphere of Titan is composed mostly of:. How many medium-sized moons does Saturn have? It has an atmosphere. Why was it thought that Titan may have oceans of methane? Why do scientists think Titan has an atmosphere while the large moons of Jupiter Ganymede, Callisto, Europa and Io do not? The jovian satellites never formed atmospheres because the solar nebula was too hot there.

What did the Huygens and Cassini probes find on the surface of Titan? The "wispy terrain" on Rhea was revealed by the Cassini spacecraft to be. The Cassini spacecraft found evidence that the E Ring is related to Enceladus through. Which Saturnian moon has the leading hemisphere black as tar, the back side icy white?

What mission landed on Titan in early ? What makes Mimas a distinct moon? It suffered a huge meteorite impact that must have nearly shattered it. Which moon of Saturn constantly changes its rotational speed and rotational axis? Now name two differences. However, it is much colder, lacks any substantial oxygen, and its clouds are made of methane and other hydrocarbons, not water droplets like ours.

How is Mimas responsible for the Cassini Division? Mimas has an orbital period precisely twice that of matter in the Cassini Division. As such, it exerts a regular tug on particles there, pulling them to an orbit further out.

The particles stay in the outer orbit once they collide with other particles and lose excess energy. With these wind speeds, even if there was oxygen in Saturn's atmosphere, you still wouldn't be able to breathe because the air would be sucked from your lungs. Planetary surface temperatures tend to get colder the farther a planet is from the Sun. Venus is the exception, as its proximity to the Sun and dense atmosphere make it our solar system's hottest planet. Saturn Distance from Earth The distance of Saturn from Earth is currently 1,,, kilometers , equivalent to 9.

Viewed from Earth, Saturn has an overall hazy yellow-brown appearance. The surface that is seen through telescopes and in spacecraft images is actually a complex of cloud layers decorated by many small-scale features, such as red, brown, and white spots, bands, eddies, and vortices, that vary over a fairly short time.

Saturn's rings are ringing like a bell , which is making it possible for researchers to explore deep inside the heart of the planet.

Gravitational forces push seismic waves from Saturn's interior into its ring system, where NASA's Cassini mission was able to detect the minute tremors.

Saturn is visible to the naked eye as a bright spot in the southeastern sky. Saturn's rings are almost as wide as the distance between the Earth and the moon, so at first glance, they seem like an easy place to land and explore on foot. But if you were able to hike on one of Saturn's outermost rings, you'll walk about 12 million kilometers to make it around the longest one.

Although the other gas giants in the solar system — Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune — also have rings, Saturn's rings are particularly prominent, earning it the nickname the " Ringed Planet. New research by scientists apparently shows that it rains diamonds on Jupiter and Saturn.

According to the research lightning storms on the planets turn methane into soot which hardens into chunks of graphite and then diamonds as it falls. That's 3 main rings and 5 dusty rings for a total of 8 rings , 9 if you count the Cassini Division. But there are even more rings around Saturn. Deep within Neptune and Uranus , it rains diamonds—or so astronomers and physicists have suspected for nearly 40 years. The outer planets of our Solar System are hard to study, however.

Only a single space mission, Voyager 2, has flown by to reveal some of their secrets, so diamond rain has remained only a hypothesis. These researchers found that, based on spectroscopic observations of the Saturn system from Cassini, the water in Saturn's rings and moons is surprisingly like the water on Earth — an unexpected result, given their disparate locations. Saturn is considerably colder than Jupiter being further from the Sun, with an average temperature of about degrees F. Wind speeds on Saturn are extremely high, having been measured at slightly more than 1, mph, considerably higher than Jupiter.

How oblate is saturn? Asked by: Darryl Reichel. Is Jupiter hotter than Saturn? What are 5 facts about Saturn? Facts about Saturn. Saturn is the most distant planet that can be seen with the naked eye. Who was the first person to see Saturn's rings?

Is Saturn a god? Does Saturn support life? Can humans live on Saturn? Can we breathe on Saturn? What is the hottest planet? How far is Saturn from Earth right now? What is the color of Saturn? Do the rings of Saturn make noise?