Saturn jupiter planet name picture. Saturn - The Lord of the Rings

The starry sky has always attracted romantics, poets, artists and lovers with its beauty. Since time immemorial, people have admired the scattering of stars and attributed to them special magical properties.

Ancient astrologers, for example, were able to draw a parallel between the date of birth of a person and the star that shone brightly at that moment. It was believed that it can influence not only the totality of the character traits of a newborn, but also his entire future fate. Stargazing helped farmers determine the best date for sowing and harvesting. It can be said that much in the life of ancient people was subject to the influence of stars and planets, so it is not surprising that mankind has been trying to study the planets closest to the Earth for more than one century.

Many of them are currently quite well studied, but some can present scientists with many surprises. To such planets, astronomers, in the first place, include Saturn. A description of this gas giant can be found in any textbook on astronomy. However, scientists themselves believe that this is one of the most poorly understood planets, all the mysteries and secrets of which humanity is not even able to list yet.

Today you will receive the most detailed information about Saturn. The mass of the gas giant, its size, description and comparative characteristics with the Earth - you can learn all this from this article. Perhaps you will hear some facts for the first time, and something will seem simply incredible to you.

Ancient conceptions of Saturn

Our ancestors could not accurately calculate the mass of Saturn and characterize it, but they definitely understood how majestic this planet was and even worshiped it. Historians believe that Saturn, which belongs to one of the five planets that are perfectly distinguishable from Earth with the naked eye, has been known to people for a very long time. It got its name in honor of the god of fertility and agriculture. This deity was highly revered among the Greeks and Romans, but in the future the attitude towards him changed slightly.

The fact is that the Greeks began to associate Saturn with Kronos. This titan was very bloodthirsty and even devoured his own children. Therefore, he was treated without due respect and with some apprehension. But the Romans revered Saturn very much and even considered him a god who gave humanity many of the knowledge necessary for life. It was the god of agriculture who taught ignorant people to build living quarters and save the grown crop until the next year. In gratitude to Saturn, the Romans held real holidays lasting several days. During this period, even slaves could forget about their insignificant position and fully feel like free people.

It is noteworthy that in many ancient cultures, Saturn, which scientists were able to characterize only after millennia, was associated with strong deities who confidently control the destinies of people in many worlds. Modern historians often think that ancient civilizations could have known much more about this giant planet than we do today. Perhaps other knowledge was available to them, and we just have to, throwing away dry statistical data, penetrate into the secrets of Saturn.

Brief description of the planet

In a few words, it is quite difficult to tell which planet Saturn really is. Therefore, in the current section, we will give the reader all the known data that will help to form some idea about this amazing celestial body.

Saturn is the sixth planet in our native solar system. Since it mainly consists of gases, it is classified as a gas giant. Jupiter is usually called the closest "relative" of Saturn, but besides it, Uranus and Neptune can also be added to this group. It is noteworthy that all gaseous planets can be proud of their rings, but only Saturn has them in such quantity that it allows you to see its majestic "belt" even from Earth. Modern astronomers rightly consider it the most beautiful and bewitching planet. After all, the rings of Saturn (what this magnificence consists of, we will tell in one of the following sections of the article) almost constantly change their color and each time their photo surprises with new shades. Therefore, the gas giant is one of the most recognizable among the other planets.

The mass of Saturn (5.68 × 10 26 kg) is extremely large compared to the Earth, we will talk about this a little later. But the diameter of the planet, which, according to the latest data, is more than one hundred and twenty thousand kilometers, confidently brings it to second place in the solar system. Only Jupiter, the leader in this list, can argue with Saturn.

The gas giant has its own atmosphere, magnetic fields and a huge number of satellites, which were gradually discovered by astronomers. Interestingly, the density of the planet is noticeably less than the density of water. Therefore, if your imagination allows you to imagine a huge pool filled with water, then be sure that Saturn will not drown in it. Like a huge inflatable ball, it will slowly slide over the surface.

Origin of the gas giant

Despite the fact that research on Saturn by spacecraft has been actively conducted over the past decades, scientists still cannot say for sure exactly how the planet was formed. To date, two main hypotheses have been put forward, which have their followers and opponents.

The Sun and Saturn are often compared in composition. Indeed, they contain a large concentration of hydrogen, which allowed some scientists to hypothesize that our star and the planets of the solar system were formed at almost the same time. Massive gas accumulations became the ancestors of Saturn and the Sun. However, none of the supporters of this theory can explain why, if I may say so, a planet was formed from the source material in one case, and a star in the other. The differences in their composition, too, no one can yet give a worthy explanation.

According to the second hypothesis, the process of formation of Saturn lasted hundreds of millions of years. Initially, there was the formation of solid particles, which gradually reached the mass of our Earth. However, at some point, the planet lost a large amount of gas, and at the second stage, it actively increased it from outer space by gravity.

Scientists hope that in the future they will be able to discover the secret of the formation of Saturn, but before that they still have many decades of waiting. After all, only the Cassini apparatus, which worked in its orbit for a long thirteen years, managed to get as close as possible to the planet. This autumn, he completed his mission, collecting for observers a huge amount of data that has yet to be processed.

planet orbit

Saturn and the Sun are separated by almost one and a half billion kilometers, so the planet does not get much light and heat from our main luminary. It is noteworthy that the gas giant rotates around the Sun in a slightly elongated orbit. However, in recent years, scientists have argued that almost all planets do this. Saturn makes a complete revolution in almost thirty years.

The planet spins extremely fast around its axis, it takes about ten Earth hours for a revolution. If we lived on Saturn, that is how long a day would last. Interestingly, scientists tried to calculate the full rotation of the planet around its axis several times. During this time, an error of approximately six minutes occurred, which is considered quite impressive in the framework of science. Some scientists attribute it to the inaccuracy of instruments, while others argue that over the years, our native Earth began to rotate more slowly, which allowed errors to form.

Planet structure

Since the size of Saturn is often compared with Jupiter, it is not surprising that the structures of these planets are very similar to each other. Scientists conditionally divide the gas giant into three layers, the center of which is a rocky core. It has a high density and is at least ten times more massive than the Earth's core. The second layer, where it is located, is liquid metallic hydrogen. Its thickness is approximately fourteen and a half thousand kilometers. The outer layer of the planet is molecular hydrogen, the thickness of this layer is measured in eighteen and a half thousand kilometers.

Scientists, studying the planet, found out one interesting fact - it emits two and a half times more radiation into outer space than it receives from the star. They tried to find a definite explanation for this phenomenon, drawing a parallel with Jupiter. However, until now, this remains another mystery of the planet, because the size of Saturn is smaller than its “brother”, which emits much more modest amounts of radiation into the outside world. Therefore, today such activity of the planet is explained by the friction of helium flows. But how viable this theory, scientists cannot say.

Planet Saturn: composition of the atmosphere

If you observe the planet through a telescope, it becomes noticeable that the color of Saturn has a somewhat muted pale orange hue. On its surface, stripe-like formations can be noted, which are often formed into bizarre shapes. However, they are not static and quickly transform.

When we talk about gaseous planets, it is rather difficult for the reader to understand exactly how the difference between the conditional surface and the atmosphere can be determined. Scientists also faced a similar problem, so it was decided to determine a certain starting point. It is in it that the temperature begins to drop, and here astronomers draw an invisible boundary.

Saturn's atmosphere is almost ninety-six percent hydrogen. Of the constituent gases, I would also like to name helium, it is present in an amount of three percent. The remaining one percent is divided among themselves by ammonia, methane and other substances. For all living organisms known to us, the atmosphere of the planet is destructive.

The thickness of the atmospheric layer is close to sixty kilometers. Surprisingly, Saturn, like Jupiter, is often referred to as the "planet of storms." Of course, by the standards of Jupiter, they are insignificant. But for earthlings, a wind of almost two thousand kilometers per hour will seem like the real end of the world. Such storms occur on Saturn quite often, sometimes scientists notice formations in the atmosphere that resemble our hurricanes. In a telescope, they look like vast white spots, and hurricanes are extremely rare. Therefore, observing them is considered a great success for astronomers.

Rings of Saturn

The color of Saturn and its rings is approximately the same, although this "belt" sets a huge number of problems for scientists that they are not yet able to solve. It is especially difficult to answer questions about the origin and age of this splendor. To date, the scientific community has put forward several hypotheses on this topic, which no one can yet prove or disprove.

First of all, many young astronomers are interested in what the rings of Saturn are made of. Scientists can answer this question quite accurately. The structure of the rings is very heterogeneous, it consists of billions of particles that move at great speed. The diameter of these particles ranges from one centimeter to ten meters. They are ninety-eight percent ice. The remaining two percent are represented by various impurities.

Despite the impressive picture that the rings of Saturn present, they are very thin. Their thickness, on average, does not even reach a kilometer, while their diameter reaches two hundred and fifty thousand kilometers.

For simplicity, the rings of the planet are usually called one of the letters of the Latin alphabet, three rings are considered the most noticeable. But the second is considered the most striking and beautiful.

Ring formation: theories and hypotheses

Since ancient times, people have puzzled over exactly how the rings of Saturn were formed. Initially, a theory was put forward about the simultaneous formation of the planet and its rings. However, later this version was refuted, because scientists were struck by the purity of the ice, of which the “belt” of Saturn consists. If the rings had the same age as the planet, then their particles would be covered with a layer that can be compared to dirt. Since this did not happen, the scientific community had to look for other explanations.

The theory about the exploded satellite of Saturn is considered traditional. According to this statement, approximately four billion years ago, one of the planet's satellites came too close to it. According to scientists, its diameter could reach up to three hundred kilometers. Under the influence of the tidal force, it was torn into billions of particles that formed the rings of Saturn. The version about the collision of two satellites is also considered. Such a theory seems the most plausible, but recent data make it possible to determine the age of the rings as one hundred million years.

Surprisingly, the particles of the rings constantly collide with each other, form into new formations, and thus make it difficult to study them. Modern scientists are still unable to solve the mystery of the formation of the "belt" of Saturn, which has added to the list of mysteries of this planet.

Moons of Saturn

The gas giant has a huge number of satellites. Forty percent of all known systems revolve around it. To date, sixty-three moons of Saturn have been discovered, and many of them present no less surprises than the planet itself.

The size of satellites ranges from three hundred kilometers to more than five thousand kilometers in diameter. The easiest way for astronomers to discover large moons, most of them were able to describe in the late eighties of the eighteenth century. It was then that Titan, Rhea, Enceladus and Iapetus were discovered. These moons are still of great interest to scientists and are closely studied by them.

Interestingly, all the moons of Saturn are very different from each other. They are united by the fact that they are always turned to the planet with only one side and rotate almost synchronously. The three moons of greatest interest to astronomers are:

• Titanium.
• Enceladus.

Titan is the second largest in the solar system. It is not surprising that it is second only to one of the satellites of Titan, half the size of the Moon, and the size is comparable to Mercury and even exceeds it. Interestingly, the composition of this giant moon of Saturn contributed to the formation of the atmosphere. In addition, there is liquid on it, which puts Titan on a par with the Earth. Some scientists even suggest that there may be some form of life on the moon's surface. Of course, it will be significantly different from the earth, because the atmosphere of Titan consists of nitrogen, methane and ethane, and on its surface you can see lakes of methane and islands with a bizarre relief formed by liquid nitrogen.

Enceladus is an equally amazing satellite of Saturn. Scientists call it the brightest celestial body in the solar system because of its surface, completely covered with an ice crust. Scientists are sure that under this layer of ice lies a real ocean, in which living organisms may well exist.

Rhea recently surprised astronomers. After numerous shots, they were able to see several thin rings around her. It is too early to talk about their composition and size, but this discovery was shocking, because previously it was not even assumed that rings could rotate around the satellite.

Saturn and Earth: a comparative analysis of these two planets

Comparisons between Saturn and Earth are rarely made by scientists. These celestial bodies are too different to compare them with each other. But today we decided to expand the reader's horizons a little and still look at these planets with a fresh look. Is there anything in common between them?

First of all, it comes to mind to compare the mass of Saturn and the Earth, this difference will be incredible: the gas giant is ninety-five times larger than our planet. In size, it exceeds the Earth nine and a half times. Therefore, in its volume, our planet can fit more than seven hundred times.

Interestingly, the gravity on Saturn will be ninety-two percent of the earth's gravity. If we assume that a person weighing one hundred kilograms is transferred to Saturn, then his weight will decrease to ninety-two kilograms.

Every student knows that the earth's axis has a certain angle of inclination relative to the sun. This allows the seasons to change each other, and people enjoy all the beauties of nature. Surprisingly, Saturn's axis has a similar tilt. Therefore, the planet can also observe the change of seasons. However, they do not have a pronounced character and it is quite difficult to trace them.

Like the Earth, Saturn has its own magnetic field, and recently scientists have witnessed a real aurora that spilled over the conditional surface of the planet. It pleased with the duration of the glow and bright purple hues.

Even from our small comparative analysis it is clear that both planets, despite the incredible differences, have something that unites them. Perhaps this makes scientists constantly turn their gaze towards Saturn. However, some of them laughingly say that if it were possible to look at both planets side by side, then the Earth would look like a coin, and Saturn would look like an inflated basketball.

Studying the gas giant that is Saturn is a process that puzzles scientists all over the world. More than once they sent probes and various apparatuses to him. Since the last mission was completed this year, the next one is scheduled only for 2020. However, now no one can say whether it will take place. For several years, negotiations have been underway on Russia's participation in this large-scale project. According to preliminary calculations, the new device will take about nine years to get into the orbit of Saturn, and another four years to study the planet and its largest satellite. Based on the foregoing, one can be sure that the disclosure of all the secrets of the planet of storms is a matter of the future. Perhaps you, our readers today, will also take part in this.

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun in the solar system, one of the giant planets. A characteristic feature of Saturn, its decoration, is a system of rings, consisting mainly of ice and dust. It has many satellites. Saturn was named by the ancient Romans in honor of the god of agriculture they especially revered.

a brief description of

Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter, with a mass of about 95 Earth masses. Saturn revolves around the Sun at an average distance of about 1430 million kilometers. The distance to the Earth is 1280 million km. Its circulation period is 29.5 years, and a day on the planet lasts ten and a half hours. The composition of Saturn practically does not differ from the solar one: the main elements are hydrogen and helium, as well as numerous impurities of ammonia, methane, ethane, acetylene and water. In terms of internal composition, it is more reminiscent of Jupiter: a core of iron, water and nickel, covered with a thin shell of metallic hydrogen. The atmosphere of a huge amount of gaseous helium and hydrogen envelops the core in a thick layer. Because the planet is made up mostly of gas and there is no solid surface, Saturn is considered a gas giant. For the same reason, its average density is incredibly low - 0.687 g / cm 3, which is less than the density of water. This makes it the least dense planet in the system. However, the degree of compression of Saturn, on the contrary, is the highest. This means that its equatorial and polar radii are very different in size - 60,300 km and 54,400 km, respectively. This also implies a large difference in speeds for different parts of the atmosphere depending on latitude. The average speed of rotation around the axis is 9.87 km/s, and the orbital speed is 9.69 km/s.

A majestic spectacle is the system of Saturn's rings. They consist of fragments of ice and stones, dust, remnants of former satellites, destroyed by its gravitational
field. They are located very high above the equator of the planet, about 6 - 120 thousand kilometers. However, the rings themselves are very thin: each of them is about a kilometer thick. The whole system is divided into four rings - three main and one thinner. The first three are usually denoted in Latin letters. The middle B ring, the brightest and widest, is separated from the A ring by a space called the Cassini gap, in which the thinnest and almost transparent rings are located. It is little known that all four giant planets actually have rings, but they are almost invisible in all but Saturn.

There are currently 62 known moons of Saturn. The largest of them are Titan, Enceladus, Mimas, Tethys, Dione, Iapetus and Rhea. Titan, the largest of the moons, is similar to Earth in many ways. It has an atmosphere divided into layers, as well as liquid on the surface, which is already a proven fact. Smaller objects are thought to be asteroid fragments and may be less than a kilometer in size.

Planet formation

There are two hypotheses for the origin of Saturn:

The first, the contraction hypothesis, states that the sun and the planets formed in the same way. At the initial stages of its development, the solar system was a disk of gas and dust, in which separate sections gradually formed, denser and more massive than the substance surrounding them. As a result, these "condensations" gave rise to the Sun and the planets known to us. This explains the similarity of the composition of Saturn and the Sun and its low density.

According to the second "accretion" hypothesis, the formation of Saturn proceeded in two stages. The first one is the formation of dense bodies in the gas and dust disk like the solid planets of the terrestrial group. At this time, part of the gases in the region of Jupiter and Saturn scattered into outer space, which explains the small difference in composition between these planets and the Sun. At the second stage, larger bodies attracted gas from the cloud surrounding them.

Internal structure

The inner region of Saturn is divided into three layers. In the center there is a small but massive core of silicates, metals and ice compared to the total volume. Its radius is about a quarter of the radius of the planet, and its mass is from 9 to 22 Earth masses. The temperature in the core is about 12,000 °C. The energy emitted by the gas giant is 2.5 times the energy it receives from the Sun. There are several reasons for this. First, the source of internal heat can be the energy reserves accumulated during the gravitational contraction of Saturn: when the planet was formed from a protoplanetary disk, the gravitational energy of dust and gas turned into kinetic and then into heat. Secondly, part of the heat is created due to the Kelvin-Helmholtz mechanism: when the temperature drops, the pressure also drops, due to which the substance of the planet is compressed, and potential energy is converted into heat. Third, as a result of the condensation of helium droplets and their subsequent fall through the hydrogen layer into the core, heat can also be generated.

The core of Saturn is surrounded by a layer of hydrogen in a metallic state: it is in the liquid phase, but has the properties of a metal. Such hydrogen has a very high electrical conductivity, therefore, the circulation of currents in it creates a powerful magnetic field. Here, at a depth of about 30 thousand km, the pressure reaches 3 million atmospheres. Above this level is a layer of liquid molecular hydrogen, which gradually becomes a gas with height, in contact with the atmosphere.

Atmosphere

Since gas planets do not have a solid surface, it is difficult to determine exactly where the atmosphere begins. For Saturn, the height at which methane boils is taken as such a zero level. The main components of the atmosphere are hydrogen (96.3%) and helium (3.25%). Also, spectroscopic studies found in its composition water, methane, acetylene, ethane, phosphine, ammonia. The pressure at the upper boundary of the atmosphere is about 0.5 atm. At this level, ammonia condenses and white clouds form. At the bottom of the clouds are composed of ice crystals and water droplets.

The gases in the atmosphere are constantly moving, as a result of which they take the form of bands parallel to the diameter of the planet. There are similar bands on Jupiter, but they are much fainter on Saturn. Due to convection and rapid rotation, incredibly strong winds are formed, the most powerful in the solar system. Winds mostly blow in the direction of rotation, to the east. At the equator, the air currents are the strongest, their speed can reach 1800 km/h. As we move away from the equator, the winds weaken, westerly flows appear. The movement of gases occurs in all layers of the atmosphere.

Large cyclones can be very persistent and last for years. Once every 30 years, the Great White Oval appears on Saturn - a super-powerful hurricane, the size of which each time becomes larger. During the last observation in 2010, it made up a quarter of the entire disk of the planet. Also, interplanetary stations discovered an unusual formation in the form of a regular hexagon at the north pole. Its form has been stable for 20 years after the first observation. Each side of it is 13,800 km - more than the diameter of the Earth. For astronomers, the reason for the formation of just such a form of clouds is still a mystery.

The Voyager and Cassini cameras captured glowing regions on Saturn. They were the aurora borealis. They are located at a latitude of 70-80° and look like very bright oval (rarely spiral) rings. It is believed that the auroras on Saturn are formed as a result of the rearrangement of the magnetic field lines. As a result, the magnetic energy heats up the surrounding regions of the atmosphere and accelerates the charged particles to high speeds. In addition, lightning discharges are observed during strong storms.

Rings

When we talk about Saturn, the first thing that comes to mind is its amazing rings. Spacecraft observations have shown that all gaseous planets have rings, but only on Saturn they are clearly visible and pronounced. The rings are made up of tiny particles of ice, rocks, dust, fragments of meteorites drawn in by the gravity of the system from outer space. They are more reflective than the disk of Saturn itself. The ring system consists of three main rings and a thinner fourth. Their diameter is approximately 250,000 km, and their thickness is less than 1 km. The rings are named by the letters of the Latin alphabet in order, from the periphery to the center. Rings A and B are separated from each other by a space 4000 km wide, called the Cassini gap. Inside the outer ring A there is also a gap - Encke's dividing strip. Ring B is the brightest and widest, and Ring C is almost transparent. The D, E, F, G rings, which are dimmer and closest to the outer part of Saturn's atmosphere, were discovered later. After the space stations took pictures of the planet, it became clear that in fact all large rings consist of many thinner rings.

There are several theories about the origin and formation of Saturn's rings. According to one of them, the rings were formed as a result of the “capture” by the planet of some of its satellites. They were destroyed, and their fragments were evenly distributed along the orbit. The second says that the rings formed along with the planet itself from the initial cloud of dust and gas. The particles that make up the rings cannot form larger objects like satellites due to their too small size, random movement and collisions with each other. It is worth noting that the system of Saturn's rings is not considered absolutely stable: part of the substance is lost, being absorbed by the planet or dissipating into the circumplanetary space, and part, on the contrary, is compensated when comets and asteroids interact with the gravitational field.

Of all the gas giants, Saturn has the most similarities with Jupiter in its structure and composition. A significant part of both planets is an atmosphere of a mixture of hydrogen and helium, as well as some other impurities. Such an elemental composition practically does not differ from the solar one. Under a thick layer of gases is a core of ice, iron and nickel, covered with a thin shell of metallic hydrogen. Saturn and Jupiter emit more heat than they receive from the Sun, since about half of the energy they radiate is due to internal heat fluxes. So Saturn could have become a second star, but it didn't have enough material to generate enough gravitational force to fuel fusion.

Modern space observations have shown that the clouds at the north pole of Saturn form a giant regular hexagon, the length of each side of which is 12.5 thousand km. The structure rotates with the planet and has not lost its shape for 20 years since its first discovery. A similar phenomenon is not observed anywhere else in the solar system, and scientists still have not been able to explain it.

The Voyager spacecraft have detected strong winds on Saturn. Air flow speeds reach 500 m/s. The winds blow mainly in an easterly direction, although as they move away from the equator, their strength weakens and streams directed to the west appear. Some data suggest that the circulation of gases occurs not only in the upper layers of the atmosphere, but also at depth. Also, hurricanes of colossal power periodically appear in the atmosphere of Saturn. The largest of them - the "Big White Oval" - appears once every 30 years.

Now in the orbit of Saturn is the interplanetary station "Cassini", controlled from the Earth. It was launched in 1997 and reached the planet in 2004. Its goal is to study the rings, atmosphere and magnetic field of Saturn and its moons. Thanks to Cassini, many high-quality images were obtained, auroras were discovered, the hexagon mentioned above, mountains and islands on Titan, traces of water on Enceladus, previously unknown rings that could not be seen with ground-based instruments.

The rings of Saturn in the form of processes on the sides can be seen even in small binoculars with a lens diameter of 15 mm or more. A telescope with a diameter of 60-70 mm already shows a small disk of the planet without details, surrounded by rings. Larger instruments (100-150 mm) show Saturn's cloud belts, pole caps, ring shadows, and some other details. With telescopes larger than 200 mm, you can perfectly see dark and light spots on the surface, belts, zones, details of the structure of the rings.

The story about Saturn for children contains information about the temperature on Saturn, about its satellites and features. You can supplement the message about Saturn with interesting facts.

A Brief Message about Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet of the solar system, which is also called the "lord of the rings."

The planet got its name from the name of the ancient Roman god of fertility. The planet has been known since ancient times, because Saturn is one of the brightest objects in our starry sky. It is the second largest giant planet. Saturn's rings, made up of thousands of solid fragments of rock and ice, revolve around the planet at a speed of 10 km/s. The rings of Saturn are very thin. With a diameter of about 250,000 km, their thickness does not reach even a kilometer.

There are currently 62 known satellites orbiting the planet. Titan is the largest of them, as well as the second largest satellite in the solar system (after the satellite of Jupiter, Ganymede), which is larger than Mercury and has the only dense atmosphere among the satellites of the solar system.

Message about Saturn for children

The sixth planet Saturn was named after the Roman god of agriculture. Its dimensions are only slightly inferior to Jupiter.

The average diameter of Saturn is 58,000 km. Despite the large size, A day on Saturn lasts only 10 hours and 14 minutes.. One revolution around the Sun takes almost 30 Earth years.

The planet has 62 moons. Among them, the most famous are Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Telesto, Calypso, Dione, Helen, Rhea, Titan, Hyperon, Iapetus, Phoebe. Phoebe's satellite, unlike all the others, turns in the opposite direction. In addition, the existence of 3 more satellites is assumed.

Saturn is more than three times as massive as Jupiter. The planet consists of gases, hydrogen in it is 94%, and the rest is mostly helium.

Due to this, the wind speeds on Saturn are higher than on Jupiter - 1700 km / h. Moreover, wind flows in the southern and northern hemispheres of the planet are symmetrical with respect to the equator.

Surface temperature of Saturn-188 degrees Celsius: this is the result of solar activity and its own heat source. In the center of the planet is an iron-silicon core, with an admixture of ice from methane, ammonia and water, and the chemical lattice of ice inside Saturn is significantly different from the usual one.

Saturn is also unique because its density is less than the density of terrestrial water. Great storms are constantly observed on this planet, visible even from the Earth, accompanied by lightning!

The most remarkable phenomenon of the cosmic god of time are the rings encircling the planet. They were discovered by Galileo in 1610. They revolve around Saturn at varying speeds and are made up of thousands of solid pieces of rock and ice.

The rings of Saturn are very thin. With a diameter of about 250,000 km, their thickness does not reach even a kilometer. Today, astronomers known to have 7 main rings.

Jupiter and Saturn are a complementary pair. They show how a person manages to preserve (Saturn) and develop (Jupiter) the features of his character, his individuality in a specific geographical environment, social standards, religious and cultural traditions. At all levels - physiological, psychological and social - Jupiterian expansiveness can only function within the framework set by Saturn.

If Jupiter in the radix is ​​stronger than Saturn, then the needs for consumption can exceed the capabilities of a person on a mental, emotional or physical level, which leads to a kind of "indigestion". The expansiveness of Jupiter needs the restraint and moderation of Saturn, which determines the goals and directions for the development of Jupiterian energy.

Jupiter and Saturn are social planets. They determine the hereditary factors of the human body, as well as the social environment, which provides the individual with certain development opportunities, but also limits it to compliance with the norms and laws adopted in society. Jupiter and Saturn reflect in the natal chart a person's attitude to the social environment in which he was born, determine the degree of a person's involvement in social life, his attitude to his time and to the existing political system. A person will always choose the type of his activity, based on the hierarchy of values ​​accepted in a given society.

By studying the aspects of Saturn and Jupiter in the radix, as well as the phase of the relationship of their cycles in transits, one can understand the reasons for the difficulties of a person’s social adaptation, see the moment when the first difficulties of this level appear and when their resolution comes.

THE JUPITER-SATURN CYCLE

combination and determines the development of social orientation.

Analyzing the radix, it is important to understand not only the unique direction of personality development, but also how this direction is consistent with the current social context at the time of a person’s birth and during the period of his formation. To understand how a person will react to these external influences, one must examine the position of Jupiter and Saturn in the radix. Taken together, they indicate the most natural way for the individual to adapt to the life of his family and the activities of the social group in the professional or political sphere.

Saturn affirms and concretizes the nature and quality of social activity determined by Jupiter.

It is necessary to analyze the radical phase of the Jupiter-Saturn cycle, which shows a person's attitude to his social status and participation in public life; study the cycles established by subsequent conjunctions of two planets (every 20 years). The radical phase of the cycle indicates the years when the person will experience these conjunctions.

When interpreting, it is important to take into account the age factor, since transit connections carry the possibility of profound transformations in a person's social orientation, and the perception of such an opportunity at different ages has its own specifics. The ability to make such changes is of great psychological importance in a person's life, and the place of connection (the house of the natal chart) reflects the area in which this opportunity can be used. Unused opportunities serve as a source of disappointment, frustration, guilt and social loss.

Cycles correspond more with periods of psychological growth than with changes in the material state of the environment. The transitive conjunctions, squares and oppositions of Jupiter with Saturn, in their combination with the accents of the radix, draw attention to a certain phase of the development of the relationship of the individual with his environment.

The radical position of Jupiter and Saturn shows a special phase of the cycle, which began with a conjunction in the prenatal period. The critical phase of the Jupiter-Saturn cycle at the time of birth may mean that the social adaptation of a person becomes an exceptional phenomenon or a subject of disappointment as a result of events that began shortly before or immediately after the birth of the subject.

Between two consecutive conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn, 20 years pass (more precisely - 19.86), the cycle period is about 60 (59.577) years and includes three conjunctions, where every third conjunction occurs in the same sign with an average shift of 8.93 °. The Chinese called this 60-year cycle cycle of social retardation . He marks the periods between the appearance of some kind of innovation and its wide distribution, introduction into the social structure.

During a person's life, Jupiter and Saturn return to the radix zodiacal position three times. At these moments, the social orientation of a person can completely change, become stronger or become more important in social activities. The moment when an individual first realizes what role he could play in society usually coincides with the major phase of the Jupiter-Saturn transit cycle, if this phase has a direct or indirect connection with the radix.

Jupiter conjunct Saturn

It starts cycles of development, the problems of which are the effective realization of one's conscious Ego in social activity. The interpretation of the personal meaning of these compounds depends on their position in the house of the radix, and if the time of birth is not known, then in the system of solar houses. Solar houses have a more external character, they should be correlated with the meaning of the natal Sun, with the principle of vitality, with the functions of personal success, the level of self-esteem of the individual.

In any case, the specific meaning of the phases of the Jupiter-Saturn cycle in the life of an individual is determined in the general context of his radix.

Prepared based on the book by N. Markina "Cycles of the Planets".

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Known since ancient times - Saturn - is the sixth planet of our solar system, famous for its rings. It is part of four gas giant planets such as Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. With its size (diameter = 120,536 km), it is second only to Jupiter and is the second largest in the entire solar system. She was named after the ancient Roman god Saturn, who among the Greeks was called Kronos (a titan and the father of Zeus himself).

The planet itself, along with the rings, can be seen from Earth, even with an ordinary small telescope. A day on Saturn is 10 hours and 15 minutes, and the period of rotation around the Sun is almost 30 years!
Saturn is a unique planet because its density is 0.69 g/cm³, which is less than the density of water 0.99 g/cm³. An interesting pattern follows from this: if it were possible to immerse the planet in a huge ocean or pool, then Saturn could stay on the water and swim in it.

Structure of Saturn

The structure of Saturn and Jupiter have many similarities, both in composition and in the main characteristics, but their appearance is quite noticeably different. In Jupiter, bright tones stand out, while in Saturn, they are noticeably muted. Due to the smaller number in the lower layers of the cloud-shaped formations, the bands on Saturn are less visible. Another similarity with the fifth planet: Saturn gives off more heat than it receives from the Sun.
The atmosphere of Saturn is almost entirely composed of hydrogen 96% (H2), 3% of helium (He). Less than 1% are methane, ammonia, ethane and other elements. The percentage of methane, although insignificant in the atmosphere of Saturn, does not prevent it from taking an active part in the absorption of solar radiation.
In the upper layers, the minimum temperature is recorded, -189 ° C, but when immersed in the atmosphere, it increases significantly. At a depth of about 30 thousand km, hydrogen changes and becomes metallic. It is liquid metallic hydrogen that creates a magnetic field of enormous power. The core in the center of the planet turns out to be stone-iron.
When studying gaseous planets, scientists are faced with a problem. After all, there is no clear boundary between the atmosphere and the surface. The problem was solved in the following way: they take for a certain zero height "zero" the point at which the temperature starts counting in the opposite direction. In fact, this is what happens on Earth.

When imagining Saturn, any person immediately conjures up its unique and amazing rings. Research carried out with the help of AMS (automatic interplanetary stations) showed that 4 gaseous giant planets have their own rings, but only near Saturn they have such good visibility and spectacularity. There are three main rings of Saturn, named rather uncomplicatedly: A, B, C. The fourth ring is much thinner and less noticeable. As it turned out, the rings of Saturn are not one solid body, but billions of small celestial bodies (pieces of ice), ranging in size from a grain of dust to several meters. They move at approximately the same speed (about 10km/s) around the equatorial part of the planet, sometimes colliding with each other.

Photos from the AMC showed that all visible rings are made up of thousands of small rings interspersed with empty, unfilled space. For clarity, you can imagine an ordinary record, Soviet times.
The unique shape of the rings at all times haunted neither scientists nor ordinary observers. They all tried to find out their structure and understand how and why they were formed. At different times, various hypotheses and assumptions were put forward, for example, that they formed along with the planet. Currently, scientists are leaning towards the meteorite origin of the rings. This theory has also received observational confirmation, since the rings of Saturn are periodically updated and are not something stable.

Satellites of Saturn

Saturn currently has about 63 discovered moons. The vast majority of satellites are turned to the planet by the same side and rotate synchronously.

Christian Huygens, was honored to discover the second largest satellite, after Ganimer, in the entire solar system. It is larger than Mercury in size, and its diameter is 5155 km. Titan's atmosphere is red-orange: 87% nitrogen, 11% argon, 2% methane. Naturally, methane rains pass there, and there should be seas on the surface, which include methane. However, the Voyager 1 spacecraft, which explored Titan, could not see its surface through such a dense atmosphere.
Enceladus is the brightest solar body in the entire solar system. It reflects over 99% of the sunlight due to its almost white water ice surface. Its albedo (a characteristic of a reflective surface) is greater than 1.
Also of the more famous and most studied satellites, it is worth noting Mimas, Tepheus and Dione.

Characteristics of Saturn

Mass: 5.69 * 1026 kg (95 times the Earth)
Diameter at equator: 120536 km (9.5 times the size of Earth)
Pole diameter: 108,728 km
Axis Tilt: 26.7°
Density: 0.69 g/cm³
Top layer temperature: approx. -189 °C
Period of revolution around its own axis (length of day): 10 hours 15 minutes
Distance from the Sun (average): 9.5 AU e. or 1430 million km
Orbital period around the Sun (year): 29.5 years
Orbital speed: 9.7 km/s
Orbital eccentricity: e = 0.055
Orbital inclination to the ecliptic: i = 2.5°
Free fall acceleration: 10.5 m/s²
Satellites: there are 63 pcs.