Saturn Research Papers

Saturn Saturn, one of the four gas planets in the solar system, is no doubt the most mysterious. The puzzling questions about this extraordinary planet has had scientists wondering and researching since it was first discovered. Now that NASA has sent missions to Saturn, we are starting to understand more and more. Saturn is a unique planet because of its magnificent size, its rare atmosphere, and several rings unlike any other planet. In 1610, an Italian astronomer, Galileo Galilei, discovered Saturn through a telescope, although it was nothing like we would think of a telescope today (Saturn: Read More). He had thought that Saturn was “triple bodied” because he saw a pair of spherical objects on either side of the planet. Later in the century around 1659 a Dutch Astronomer, named

Each of Saturn’s moons is unique and different from the rest of them. A result from their differences would be their size, shape, color, and atmosphere.

The first of one Saturn’s moons to be discovered was Titan. Titan was discovered by Christiaan Huygens in 1655 (Saturn: Moons). Titan is the second largest moon in our solar system, being slightly larger than Mercury, and because of this, it has an affect on the near-by moons orbits around Saturn. Its atmosphere consists of thick nitrogen clouds and a small amount of methane (Saturn: Moons and Charles Choi). Many of the moons possess a mind-blowing characteristic, separating itself from the rest of the moons. Lapetus, for example, is as bright as snow, and the opposite side is as dark as a pitch black sky at night (Saturn: Moons). Pan, along with another planet that orbits within the rings, helps to clear out materials in a slim space in the rings known as the Encke Gap. The most interesting fact about Saturn’s moons is that sixteen of its moons keep the same side toward planet as they rotate which is known as tidal locking (Saturn: