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Jack C. Davis Observatory
Planetary Walkway: Saturn
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Dedicated to our loving mother, Bernice Sheldon, who with her devotion and caring helped create the family we are today. With much love from her sons,
Gene Sheldon
Bart Sheldon
Bret Sheldon
Named after the Roman god of agriculture, Saturn is one of five planets visible from Earth without a telescope. The planet has stood as a symbol of majesty and mystery.
Saturn the most magnificent celestial object one can observe through a telescope from Earth. A major attribute of Saturn is a robust and beautiful system of rings that can be seen from Earth. Saturn has a lot of similarities with Jupiter. Saturn is massive having the weight of 95 Earth's and is a gaseous world similar to Jupiter. Saturn takes 29.4 years to make a complete orbit around the Sun and rotates completely on its axis every 10h40m (0.44 Days). Saturn distance from the Sun is over 9 times that of the Earth (9.02A.U.) Saturn is not as colorful Jupiter, but it does have belts of yellowish and tan color that drift around the planet with small ovals and spots that appear and disappear frequently in its cloud layers. Saturn's rings are quite complex and are being studied currently by an imbedded space probe that took 7 years to get to Saturn. The probe arrived at Saturn in 2004 and is named Cassini. You can learn of the latest discoveries of Saturn at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm.
Saturn has 47 moons some of which have been discovered by Cassini scientists. The Cassini has made major break through in the understanding of ring system formation and structure. Although Saturn is a beautiful world it is a hostile cold and windy planet. It is the windiest planet with equatorial winds moving at 1500 km/h (938 mi/h). Saturn was named after the father of Jupiter that derives from Roman mythology.
Quick Facts
- Mean Distance from Sun: 1,429.4 milion kilometers
- Orbital Period: 29.46 years
- Rotational Period: 10 hours 40 minutes
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| Color enhanced picture and 4 of its satellites. | ||