Spectacular Saturn

On our last journey into the solar system, we visited Jupiter, the largest planet. It has the largest mass of the planets. Surprisingly, we learn on our trip to Saturn that although it is the second largest planet, it has the lowest density. If you could find a tub of water large enough, it would float! Although other planets have systems of rings (only discovered comparatively recently), Saturn's ring system is not only striking in appearance, but amazing in complexity.

Saturn image: NASA / JPL / STScI (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents)

The moons of Saturn (62, they currently think) are also complex. And baffling. The second largest planet in the solar system has the second largest moon, Titan. It is the only moon with a thick atmosphere, which presents difficulties to evolutionary astronomers and cosmologists — the methane in the atmosphere should have been made to go away after a few million years, and those people claim that the universe is billions of years old. The placement, orbits and activities of several of the other moons are also fascinating.

As usual, the features of the planets and their moons defy evolutionary origins models and give silent testimony of not only the Creator, but of a recent creation.

When people peer into a telescope and see Saturn for the first time, the typical response is “Wow!” All the other planets appear as simple disks with a few surface features, but Saturn’s rich system of rings makes it look more like a piece of celestial jewelry. Composed of trillions of tiny moonlets—particles of water ice—these rings orbit Saturn, giving it a stunning, three-dimensional appearance quite different from any other planet.

Basic Properties

Saturn is a slightly smaller version of Jupiter in most respects. It is made of hydrogen and helium gas and trace amounts of molecules such as the methane and ammonia that give rise to its yellow color. As with Jupiter, colorful clouds are stretched into belts (dark-colored) and zones (lightcolored). However, Saturn’s belts and zones are more subtle than Jupiter’s.

Nine times the size of Earth in diameter, Saturn has the lowest density of any planet and, amazingly, would actually float in water. At a distance of 890 million miles from the sun, Saturn takes 29.5 years to complete just one orbit.

Powerful storms large enough to be seen from Earth occasionally develop in Saturn’s atmosphere and appear as bright regions within the belts and zones. Although Saturn has no permanent storms like Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, its intermittent storms can last for many months. A Great White Spot manifests roughly every 30 years during the planet’s northern hemisphere summer and can periodically occur in off-years as well, as it did in 2010.

You can finish the article at "The Solar System: Saturn".