Saturn was formed more than 4.5 billion years ago.
Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system and is the sixth planet in order of distance from the sun. Most of what we know about Saturn was gathered from 20th century spacecraft: the Pioneer 11 probe in 1979, Voyager 1 in 1980, Voyager 2 in 1981 and the ongoing Cassini mission launched in 1997. Saturn is not a terrestrial planet; it is primarily liquid held in shape my immense pressure.
Interior
Cassini landed on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, on January 14, 2005.
The planet itself is composed of 96 percent hydrogen, 3 percent helium and trace chemicals make up the remaining 1 percent. The planet is formed in layers. Closest to the surface is helium and ice, followed by liquid hydrogen, then liquid metallic hydrogen and finally, iron and rock at its core, which are believed to have sunk into the center of the planet during its formation.
Surface
Saturn does not have a solid surface.
Saturn's surface is not solid; it has an average specific density of 0.69, which is less dense than water. The atmospheric pressure is so intense that it would crush any object before it reached the surface. It is difficult to delineate where Saturn's atmosphere leaves off and its surface begins. Scientists differentiate Saturn's surface is from its atmosphere where the atmospheric pressure exceeds 1 bar.
Poles
A glowing aurora is produced over Saturn's northern polar region.
Saturn is an oblate spheroid, meaning that it is perceptibly flattened at the poles and bulges at the equator. Its north pole has a strange hexagonal pattern around it made up of high-energy subatomic particles. A glowing aurora is produced when these particles interact with gas molecules. A massive hurricane-like storm covers its south pole. The storm is made up of spiral bands of clouds, thousands of miles across and circulating at high speeds of up to 342 miles per hour, locked in place over the pole. The eye of the storm is approximately 930 miles in diameter and contains massive clouds that tower 19 to 47 miles high.
Atmosphere
Saturn's atmosphere is not much different than its surface.
The atmosphere of Saturn is comprised of 88 percent hydrogen, 11 percent helium and the remaining 1 percent is a mixture of methane, ammonia and ammonia crystals, ethane, ethylene and phosphine. The outer layer, the tropopause, is mostly clouds of ammonia. Closer to the surface is a cloud layer of ammonium hydrosulfide. Closest to the surface is a cloud-layer of water.
Rings
The two largest gaps between the rings are the Cassini and Encke divisions.
Saturn's rings are made up of hundreds of thousands of narrow bands of ice crystal, silica rock and iron oxide particles ranging in size from specks of dust to the size of a small car. These bands are only about 10 km thick. There are gaps between the strands of rings, the two largest being the Cassini division and the Encke division. There are also structures called "spokes" that extend out in a radial direction. It is believed that these spokes are caused by electrostatic repulsion between the ring particles. Some of the rings appear to be braided strands, kept in place by the interaction of gravitational forces from two of the over 600 small moons lying on either side of the strand that orbit the planet. The rings have their own atmosphere, independent of the planet, composed of molecular oxygen gas.
Tags: atmospheric pressure, aurora produced, Closest surface, gaps between, glowing aurora, glowing aurora produced, hydrogen percent
