preview

Saturn Research Paper

Good Essays

Saturn
The planets, stars, moons, comets, asteroids, and other material floating in space make up our Solar System. Currently, there is only one planet that can sustain life as we know it, Earth. Although, the other planets that help to create our solar system may not contain or support life, the planets are useful in expanding our knowledge about the other mysteries in our Solar System. Saturn, known mainly for the jaw-dropping rings that gently encompass the planet, is one of only five planets that can be seen from Earth with the naked eye. Saturn was first visualized back in ancient times with no record of exactly when it was first noticed. Saturn was named in ancient times after the Roman god, Saturnus, the god of agriculture and harvest. The Greeks had already named a planet (or two) for their gods so the Roman's decided to name this new planet for one of their own gods. …show more content…

An albedo of zero means the planet is dark and does not reflect light. An albedo of 1 indicates that the planet is bright and 100% reflective. The highest albedo in the solar system is Saturn's moon, Enceladus. Enceladus's albedo is 0.99. The rings that circle Saturn have an albedo of 0.6 (The Planets, 2015). Earth's albedo is 0.39 (NASA, 2014) which makes Saturn's rings and Enceladus more reflective and essentially brighter than Earth. Like many of the planets, Saturn’s motion is not a perfect circle. It follows more of an elliptical path while orbiting the Sun while maintaining a distance of about 1,433,000,000 kilometers or 890,424,918 miles (Nine Planets, 2015). One full orbit around the sun, or the orbit period is 29.5 Earth years (NASA, 2014). The length of one day on Saturn is equal to about 0.44 Earth days or 10.656 Earth hours (NASA, 2014). The orbit inclination is a factor that allows us to view amazing sights of Saturn from Earth. Saturn's orbit inclination is 2.49 degrees (NASA,

Get Access