Planet Saturn: the magnificence of the rings

Saturn - the planet of the solar system, which everyone learns. And all thanks to its magnificent rings. After all, even from the Earth into a medium-sized telescope, three of its main rings are clearly visible. The planet Saturn is the sixth from the Sun in our Universe. Its name is due to the ancient Roman god of farming. In ancient times, because of its dull light, which has a matte-white hue, as well as a smooth and slow movement across the sky, the planet was notorious, and the birth under the sign of Saturn was considered an unkind omen.

The planet Saturn belongs to the group of giant planets. Saturn does not have a solid surface. With the exception of a small nucleus, it is predominantly formed from helium and hydrogen and is in gaseous and liquid state. The atmosphere of the planet, gradually becoming denser, gradually turns into a liquid mantle. Despite the fact that Saturn almost all consists of individual gases, it has a magnetic field, which is much stronger than the earth's. Looking at the majestic Saturn, you can get a false idea of the serenity and tranquility of the planet. But this is far from the case. On Saturn, the strongest hurricanes and winds are raging, sometimes reaching a speed of 2000 km / h! In addition, here you can see large-scale polar lights and powerful lightning discharges in the atmosphere. Light-yellow planet Saturn in its appearance is much simpler than its bright neighbor Jupiter. Saturn is deprived of such a colorful cloud cover, although the structure of the atmosphere is almost the same.

But the main advantage of the planet is its magnificent rings. Famous and not at all similar, the rings of Saturn all the time never ceased to excite the imagination of scientists and astronomers with its amazing form. They were studied and studied by brilliant astronomers, mathematicians, mechanics and other luminaries of science (JD Cassini, JC Maxwell, PS Laplace and many others). Near the planet three times visited the American space satellites: in 1979, in 1980 and in 1981. Thanks to these interplanetary stations, thousands of photographs of satellites of the rings of Saturn piercing the cosmos came to Earth.

The planet Saturn is separated from us by more than a billion kilometers. But if you "jump over" them and look at the rings from a distance of about 100 thousand kilometers, you can see that they are stratified into thousands of thin rings. And they are all different and different from each other. The edges of some are serrated, others deviate from the orbit, others are swaying, bending and forming waves, spirals, elliptical rings ... All the properties and surprises of the rings are simply impossible to enumerate! If you approach the rings of Saturn closely, you can see that they consist of billions of particles of ordinary water ice of various sizes: from small grains to loose snow blocks to 15 m.

In addition to the magnificent rings, the planet Saturn also has 62 satellites. They were named after the ancient heroes of ancient Rome and Greece: Titan, Dion, Mimas, Calypso, Rhea, Phoebe and others. Almost all of them are ice masses.

In mythology, Saturn symbolizes time, Saturday and lead. In his honor, even the holidays are "Saturnalia", which became the prototype of the holiday of the Nativity of Christ. According to legend, it was Saturn, who personified wisdom and age, who ruled our universe during the Golden Age.