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SUB.G | Saturn

Looming large and approaching fast is Saturn, probably the most beautiful and fascinating planet in our solar system.

In addition to the most amazing ring system in our solar system, Saturn has 62 natural satellites – more commonly called moons – 53 of which have formal names. Saturn has some of the most interesting moons in the solar system, and we’ve done lots of investigating of some of them.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Saturn is that it could have life–not on Saturn itself, which is far too hostile.  However, a couple of those moons we were talking about have conditions that look promising for supporting life: Enceladus.  NASA’s Cassini spacecraft recently discovered ice geysers blasting out of Enceladus’ southern pole. This means that the moon is warm enough that water can remain a liquid underneath the surface. And wherever we find liquid water on Earth, we find life.

Titan is another of Saturn’s moons, and another candidate for extraterrestrial life. Titan has a complex and dense nitrogen-rich atmosphere. It is composed mostly of water ice and rock. Its frozen surface has lakes of liquid methane and landscapes covered with frozen nitrogen. Scientists think Titan might have life, but if it does, it wouldn’t be Earth-like life.

In fact, when Cassini’s mission was complete in 2017, NASA deliberately crashed it into Saturn rather than risk it contaminating the moons, keeping them pristine for future exploration.

But what about the rings? It may surprise you to learn that, although they extend from 74,000 kilometres to about 137,000  kilometres from Saturn, the average thickness is only twenty meters and are mostly made up of water ice.

Saturn is big, but it’s also  the least dense planet in the Solar System–less dense than water, meaning that  it would float like a piece of wood if you could find a pool large enough. While massive – Saturn’s mass is 95 times that of Earth – Saturn is also a gas giant, and like Jupiter it’s composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, although it may have a solid core. Winds in Saturn’s upper atmosphere can reach speeds of 500 metres a second; these, combined with heat rising from within the planet’s interior, cause yellow and gold bands of colour when we see Saturn through the telescope.

A day on Saturn lasts about 10.75 hours; Saturn takes 29 ‘Earth years’ to go one time around the sun.

We’ve been able to see Saturn since ancient times – it was named for the Roman god of time and agriculture, who also happened to be the father of Jupiter – but it took the invention of the telescope for people to be able to observe Saturn’s magnificent rings. Galileo Galilei was the first to observe Saturn with a telescope in 1610, but he thought the rings were huge moons.  It took almost 50 years and better telescopes to get a good enough look to realise that “that’s no moon.”

We’ve seen the two gas giants, and now we have two ice giants ahead of us.

Curriculum Reference Links

 

  • Earth and Space / Building Blocks/ 1:  Students should be able to describe the relationships between various celestial objects including moons, asteroids, comets, planets, stars, solar systems, galaxies and space.
  • Earth and Space / Building Blocks/ 3: Students should be able to interpret data to compare the Earth with other planets and moons in the solar system, with respect to properties including mass, gravity, size, and composition.


Young Scientist Spotlight:
HANNAH HERBST

10 Fun Facts: The Hab

1. Aquarius is the the world’s only permanent undersea research station.

2. Most missions last about two or three weeks.

3. Fabien Cousteau, grandson of Jacques Cousteau, beat his grandfather’s record month-long underwater expedition by spending 31 days on the Aquarius Reef Base in 2014.

4. The lab is used by NASA, the US Navy, and researchers and educators from around the globe for training and research.

5. The internet connection is better in the Hab than at many places above the water.

6. You have to swim underneath the facility in order to enter it.

7. Crew members are called aquanauts (NOT aquaNUTS!)

8. In 1994, a crew of scientists and divers had to evacuate Aquarius and climb up a rescue line to the surface in 15-foot seas after one of the habitat’s generators caught fire.

9. Aquarius was featured in the comic strip Sherman’s Lagoon in 2012.

10. The Hab was originally built in Texas.

10 Fun Facts: Coral

1. Reefs usually grow up on the east shore of land masses.

2. Parts of a coral reef can be harvested to make medications to treat cancers and other illnesses.

3. A coral reef isn’t a single organism; it’s actually a community of life that lives and thrives in one location.

4. Only about one percent of the world’s oceans contain coral reefs. That’s about the size of France.

5. Coral reefs are the largest biological structures on earth.

6. Corals are related to jellyfish and anemones.

7. There are over 2,500 species of corals. About 1,000 are the hard corals that build coral reefs.

8. Reefs grow where there are stronger wave patterns and currents to deliver food and nutrients.

9. The Great Barrier Reef is 500,000 years old.

10. Most coral reefs grow just about two centimeters per year.

10. Most coral reefs grow just about two centimeters per year.

10 Fun Facts: Invasive Species

1. To be considered invasive, a species must adapt to a new area easily. It must reproduce quickly. It must harm property, the economy, or the native plants and animals of the region.

2. Some invasive species are introduced accidentally, but others are brought deliberately.

3. Ship ballast water transports between 3,000 and 7,000 foreign species daily around the globe.

4. The total loss to the world economy as a result of invasive non-native species has been estimated at 5% of annual production

5. Invasive species have contributed to 40% of the animal extinctions that have occurred in the last 400 years.

6. Rodents are some of the worst invasive species.

7. There are an estimated 50,000 wild ring-necked parakeets in parks across London and southeast England.

8. Black and Norway rats annually consume stored grains and destroy other property valued over $19 billion.

9. Northern Pacific seastars reproduce very quickly. In one area where they were introduced, their population reached an estimated 12 million seastars in just two years.

10. Starlings were introduced to New York in the late 1800s, as part of an attempt to bring animals that were mentioned in Shakespeare‘s work to America.

Alert: Cuteness Overload!

Cutest animal in the ocean? Keep your Sea Otter. Forget the Dumbo Octopus. Axolotl? Close, but no cigar.

The winner of the Cutest Sea Animal prize is the Leaf Sheep Slug.

Yes, a slug. This tiny (5mm) animal, found near the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan, looks like a cartoon sheep covered in bright green leaves with pinkish purple tips.

Bonus: it’s one of the only animals that can perform photosynthesis, thanks to all the algae it eats.

Beat that.
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