Saturn

The Lord of the Rings

Mike Swanson
March 2004

Saturn History
One of the 5 planets
known since ancient
times
First to view Saturn
through a telescope
was Galileo in the
early 1600s but his
telescope was so
poor that he could
not see the rings

In the mid-1600s
Christiaan Huygens
was the first to see
the rings and
Saturns largest moon
In the late 1600s
Giovanni Cassini was
the first to see the
darkest division in the
rings and four
additional moons

Saturn Facts
6th planet from the Sun
Diameter of 75,200 mi
(121,000 km) 9 times
larger than the Earth
1 day on Saturn is
about 11 hours
1 year on Saturn is
29.5 Earth years
Average distance from
the Sun is about 9
times further than
Earth

Over 30 moons the

largest is called Titan
and astronomers think
it is possible that
molecular life exists
below its thick clouds
One of the four gas
giants of our solar
system mostly made
of hydrogen and
helium gas

Saturns Rings

Saturns Rings
Phases through the years

Cassini/Huygens Mission to
Saturn
Launched by NASA in
October 1997
Passed Jupiter in
December 2000
Begins orbiting
Saturn in July 2004
Cassini is an orbiter
which will study
Saturns atmosphere,
rings, magnetic
fields and more

Huygens is a probe
that will land on
Saturns moon Titan
the first spacecraft
from Earth to land on
another planets moon
Joint venture by NASA
(Cassini orbiter) and
the European Space
Agency (Huygens
Probe)

http://jpl.nasa.gov/

But what does Saturn look like

when viewed through a
telescope???

The images in this presentation are

copyrighted by NASA.
For additional information and links to
many other resources, visit the
Students for the Exploration and
Development of Space (SEDS) web
site:
http://www.seds.org