Ten facts about Saturn

[astroavani]

Saturn orbits the Sun at about 9.5 times the distance from Earth to the Sun and therefore receives nearly 100 times less light than the Earth!

Saturn sends into space about 2 times more energy than it receives from the sun. This means that the planet is generating power inside. It is believed that one of the mechanisms that generate this energy is an astronomical phenomenon in which the planet shrinks slowly releasing energy in the process.

Saturn is the planet of the solar system with the lowest average density (0.69 g / cm³). To give you an idea, the density of water is 1 g / cm³. This means that if you could put Saturn on a huge pool, it would float! (All that is less dense than water, floats on water.)

It is the most flat planet in the Solar System. Imagine a beach ball and that you press on the top and bottom at the same time. You would see a noticeable flattening, is not it? Saturn, the difference between the diameter of its equator and its poles is 10%.

Saturn is not the only planet in the Solar System that has rings, although the most noticeable. Saturn's rings (learn more about the rings by clicking here) are made up of billions of water ice particles dirty with sizes ranging from tiny dust grains to several meters. This material rotates together around the planet, seen from a distance appear to be rigid as those old vinyl records.

The light tone of Saturn's atmosphere is due to the frozen ammonia clouds. Some brown tone regions may be clouds of ammonia hydrosulfide. The clouds also contains some dyes found in Jupiter (phosphine and propane).

62 moons were discovered orbiting Saturn, but only 53 of them have been officially named. Many of these moons are small (about a few kilometers in diameter), making it difficult to find them and discover other more.

Saturn, like Jupiter, has gigantic storms that can last several years. This phenomenon is characteristic of the gas planets due to strong atmospheric winds with very high speeds.

A year on Saturn is equivalent to nearly 30 years on Earth. We can say that when someone turns 30 years old on Earth, Saturn complete only 1 aninho! There is nothing special about it.
This age difference is because one year on Earth is basically 365 days (every day with 24 hours) and is the time that the Earth takes to make one complete revolution around the sun. But Saturn by orbit the Sun further away than us, takes almost 11,000 days to make one complete revolution around the sun. This is equivalent to about 30 Earth years.

The Saturn's largest moon, Titan called, is large and cold. This is the only moon in the solar system with a dense atmosphere.
Titan is the second largest natural satellite in the solar system. Its diameter is a little over 5,000 km. He is so great that is larger than our moon and bigger than the planet Mercury.

Source: Astronomy Single
http://www.astrobin.com/174433/0/

[neil phillips]

Interesting facts. And a nice capture.