Continuing our specials on the planets that inhabit our solar system, a series that we know our readers love, we’re dedicating today to talk about Saturn, the ringed giant located between Jupiter and Uranustwo planets we’ve already dedicated their respective specials to.

As usual, we’ll make a selection of ten interesting but easy-to-understand curiosities that will help you expand your knowledge about Saturn, a fascinating body that falls under the category gaseous or outer planets and which has the honor of being the second largest in the solar system.

We all know him those amazing rings that surround it, but as you’ll see below, it’s by no means the only thing that sets it apart and makes it interesting. Make yourself comfortable and let’s get started.

1.- Saturn is very big, but do you know how big?

The ringed planet is, as we said, the second largest in our solar system, as only Jupiter is larger than it.

This tells us a lot, but at the same time very little, unless we go deeper and talk about specific numbers. According to the latest data collected, Saturn has a average 120,537 kmten times larger than our home, and we could approximately “set up” in it. 750 planets like Earth.

Interestingly, the Sun could fit about 1,600 planets like Saturn.

2.- A year on Saturn lasts almost three decades

A year on Saturn, defined as the time it takes for the planet to complete one revolution around the Sun, lasts 10,759.22 Earth days.

If we do a simple calculation, we will see that this is equivalent 29.4 Earth yearsan impressive figure that allows him to surpass Jupiter, although he is behind Uranus and Neptune.

3.- Their rings were discovered earlier than you can imagine

You may not know this, but Saturn is visible to the “bare” eye and can be “acceptably” studied even with archaic and short-range telescopes.

This allowed people as ancient as the Babylonians to discover the planet and identify its rings in XVII century.

However, it should be noted that already very ancient peoples theorized about the presence of something around Saturn and even recognized it as a “belted planet”.

4.- Saturn is very cold and represents really scary storms

With the ringed giant, temperatures up to 212 degrees below zerolows far more extreme than on Earth, where the record is still set at 129 degrees below zero.

But this icy temperature isn’t the most extreme thing on Saturn, far from it. Like any gas planet, it is subject to constant storms and its atmosphere moves 1800 kilometers per hour. On Earth, the fastest recorded tornado reached a speed of 483 kilometers per hour.

They also produce storms on Saturn mega lightning with a thousand times more power than on our planet.

5.- It is made up mainly of hydrogen and is oval

Contrary to what might appear from the recreations we’ve seen, Saturn is not circular, but rather shaped. rather oval and in fact it is the flattest planet found in the solar system.

This is due to its low density and high rotation speed, which makes its day (full rotation) last 10 hours and 34 minutes.

As we assumed, it is made up mainly of hydrogen distributed in layers that solidify. until it turns into metal as we approach the planet’s core, something made possible by the enormous pressure it supports.

6.- It has the largest annular body in the solar system

Saturn is not the only planet in the solar system to have rings, but it boasts the largest number.

Those rings are made of billions of particles from small grains similar to a grain of dust to large ones that reach the size of a mountain.

They are mostly formed from remnants of ice and rock from comets and various space bodies such as comets and asteroids.

It measures approx Length 282,000 kilometers.

7.- Saturn has 146 moons and mini-moons

In addition to some impressive rings, Saturn is also surrounded by a huge number of satellites, which we can simplistically divide into moons and mini-moons (the very small ones).

All its satellites are truly unique ice worlds, and among them we can find such interesting ones as Titaniumwhich is made of ice and rock and has a atmosphere rich in nitrogen.

This moon was considered by scientists to be one of the most likely to contain the remains of single-celled life.

8.- It emits twice as much heat as it receives from the Sun

Although at first glance it appears to be a giant ball of icy gas with rings, Saturn’s core extends temperature of 11,700 degreesalmost the same as the Sun has on its surface.

This is possible due to the ongoing process of sinking hydrogen from the upper layers of the planet into the liquid hydrogen found in its deeper layers.

Because of its distance from the Sun and its special composition, the heat Saturn receives from it is minimal, and also the king of the stars looks ten times smaller of said planet compared to Earth.

9.- It is less dense than water

Of all the planets that make up the solar system, Saturn is the least dense, which means that he could swim in water If only we had a “pool” big enough to fit in there.

On the other hand, planets like Mercury and Earth, both classified as rocky planets, would fall the fastest due to their high density.

10.- Its yellow color is just a facade

Although Saturn appears to us as a huge ball of yellowish gas, the reality is that this color It’s just a facade a kind of outer layer created by presence small crystals of ammonia.

Below that first layer are areas where we find huge numbers frozen water and other curious mixtures, such as sulfur and frozen hydrogen.

11.- Life is impossible in any of the known forms

On Saturn would because of extreme conditions which occur on said planet which, as I told you earlier, is a true gas giant like Jupiter.

There are many factors that make life impossible on Saturn, in any form, but the most important are undoubtedly Hypertensionwho is able convert hydrogen into metal, its temperature as low as -212 degrees C, relatively close to absolute zero, and the materials that make it up. Strangely, we can’t say the same about their moons, as some have the potential to host life and even serve as future human colonies.

12.- Its atmosphere creates a unique phenomenon in the solar system

And it is located at the North Pole. We discovered it thanks to images sent back by the Voyager I probe, but we were able to observe it more closely with the Cassini probe. it’s about a huge hexagon-shaped air stream which has an approximate extension of 30,000 kilometers in width where winds of 322 kilometers per hour occur.

This area has a a huge storm in the center, which is the rotating center of said hexagon, and its color can range from yellow with touches of gold to intense blue due to an increase in photochemical turbidity. This does not move longitudinally and applies exclusively to the north pole of the planet, as there is only one vortex at the south pole.

13.- It has a magnetic field of titanium and auroras independent of the Sun

It is lower than Jupiter, which is quite logical, but this should not lead us to underestimate it. Saturn’s magnetic field It is 578 times more powerful than Earthand it has such a large surface that its rings and many of its satellites depend entirely on the vast magnetosphere of this planet.

On Earth, the charged particles that produce the auroras come from the solar wind, while on Saturn some of its auroras They are not affected by the solar wind, However, they are produced by a combination of particles ejected by Saturn’s moons and the high rate of rotation of its magnetic field. These solar-independent auroras are so unique that we still don’t fully understand them.

14.-Light from the Sun takes 80 minutes to reach Saturn

As many of our readers know, each planet in the solar system is at a different distance from the Sun. This is actually the basis we use to arrange the planets in our solar system, where Mercury is closest to the Sun. and Neptune the farthest. It used to be Pluto, but we now know that it is no longer considered a planet.

Saturn is one of the most distant, surpassed only by Uranus and Neptune. On average, it is 1,448 million kilometers from the Sun, a huge distance that means the light from this star takes up 80 minutes to reach the planet. For comparison purposes, sunlight lasts just over 8 minutes to reach Earth.

15.- It has the only moon in the solar system that has a thick atmosphere

And that is Titan, exactly one of the most promising moons if we talk about the possibility find alien life even though it is unicellular, in our solar system. It also has the distinction of being the second largest moon in the solar system and containing fluids despite being an icy world.

It is a rocky moon, which means we could walk on its surface without any problems, although it has such a low gravity that we should move with care. YesYour climate cycle is similar to Earth’s, even though it has no magnetic field of its own. Interestingly, we know that its atmosphere is composed mostly of nitrogen and that it contains small amounts of methane, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.

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