SATURN - THE LIFE SPAN

Where you wondering how did Saturn get its name?

Like all of the planets, Saturn is named after a character in Roman mythology. Saturn’s name comes from the Roman god Saturnus, the god of agriculture and harvest , who is equivalent to the ancient Greek deity Cronus, one of the Titans and the father of Zeus (the Roman god Jupiter) and the Babylonian Ninurta.  Saturn's symbol represents the god's sickle (Unicode: ♄). The day in the week Saturday gets its name from the planet.

In Roman mythology, Saturnus carried a sickle in one hand and wheat in the other and was the son of Helen and the father of Jupiter. Saturn has had several names.

Were you wondering who discovered Saturn? Well, nobody knows. Here’s the problem. So perhaps a better question might be to ask, when did astronomers realize that Saturn was a planet?

Saturn is easily visible in the night sky with the unaided eye as a non-twinkling point of light, so it’s hard to say when the planet was first discovered. In fact, if you’re seeing a bright star in the sky, there’s a good chance it’s Saturn. It takes a telescope to see the rings, but anybody can find Saturn, even in a bright city.

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. The second largest planet of the solar system in mass and size and the sixth in distance from the Sun. 

Saturn is a gas giant with an average radius about nine times that of Earth. While only one-eighth the average density of Earth, with its larger volume Saturn is just over 95 times more massive than Earth.

The first person to actually look at Saturn in a telescope was Galileo. He saw a strange oval-shaped planet. He thought the planet might have ears, or two small balls on either side. Later observations showed that these were actually Saturn’s grand ring system. Galileo also discovered Saturn’s moon Titan.

When viewed through even a small telescope, the planet, encircled by its magnificent rings, is arguably the most sublime object in the solar system. The ancient astronomers believed in the geocentric model of the Universe. The Earth was at the center of the Universe, and everything else orbited around it in crystal shells: the Sun, the Moon, the planets and the stars. One problem with this model was the strange movements of the planets. They would sometimes slow down, stop and even travel backwards in the sky. And to explain this, astronomers had to create elaborate models for the planets where the orbited inside spheres within spheres.

Anyway, this model was turned on its ear by Nicolas Copernicus in the 1500s. He placed the Sun at the center of the Solar System, and had all the planets orbiting around it. This nicely explained the strange movements of the planets. They weren’t going backwards, it was just a change in perspective, since the Earth is also going around the Sun.

Better observations of Saturn by Giovanni Cassini turned up 4 additional moons of Saturn, as well a division in the rings that would later be named after him: the Cassini division.

But it wouldn’t be until 1979 that the first spacecraft flew past Saturn. NASA’s Pioneer 11 spacecraft made the journey, getting within 20,000 km of the planet’s cloud tops. This was followed by the Voyager spacecraft, and eventually NASA’s Cassini spacecraft that’s orbiting the planet today. All of our best images of Saturn were sent back by orbiting spacecraft.

Nobody realized the planet had rings until Galileo first turned his rudimentary telescope on the planet in 1610. Of course, Galileo didn’t realize what he was looking at, and thought the rings were large moons on either side of the planet.

It wasn’t until Christian Huygens used a better telescope to see that they were actually rings. Huygens was also the first to discover Saturn’s largest moon Titan.

Jean-Domanique Cassini uncovered the gap in Saturn’s rings, later named the Cassini Division, and he was the first to see 4 more of Saturn’s moons: Iapetus, Rhea, Tethys, and Dione.

There weren’t many more major discoveries about Saturn until the spacecraft flybys in the 70s and 80s. NASA’s Pioneer 11 was the first spacecraft to visit Saturn, getting within 20,000 km of the planet’s cloud layers. It was followed by Voyager 1 in 1980, and Voyager 2 in August 1981.

It wasn’t until July 2004 that NASA’s Cassini spacecraft arrived at Saturn, and began the most detailed exploration of the system. Cassini has performed multiple flybys of many of Saturn’s moons, and sent back thousands of images of the planet and its moons. It has discovered 4 new moons, a new ring, and saw liquid hydrocarbon seas on Titan.

The Saturn in Hindu Mythology

Saturn is tall, black, long-limbed, and emaciated, with reddish-brown eyes, large teeth and nails, prominent veins, a sunken stomach, a long beard, matted locks, and stiff body. He is lame and his limbs are rigid; intensely harsh, he is cruel in authority, and his gaze is utterly terrifying. Saturn is the son of the Sun and his wife's Chaaya (shadow) and is the brother of Yama, the god of righteousness and death. As soon as Saturn was born, his gaze fell on his father and caused vitiligo; his gaze next fell on the Sun's charioteer, who fell and broke his thigh; and next upon the seven horses of his chariot they all went stone blind. The Sun tried a number of remedies but nothing worked. It was only when Saturn's gaze left them that the Sun's skin cleared, his charioteer's femur healed, and his horses regained their sight. Saturn became a planet after performing penance in Benaras and propitiating Lord Shiva. When Shiva's son Ganesha was born, his mother Parvati wanted to show the boy to Saturn. Saturn politely advised her not to do so, but when she insisted, he gazed at the child reluctantly with only one eye. Instantly Ganesha's head was reduced to ashes. To prevent Parvati in her anger from destroying the universe, Lord Vishnu cut off head of a bull elephant and joined it to Ganesha's body. Saturn is the lord of longevity, death, justice and time. Even King Indra and all the gods panic when Saturn is nearby, for over the ages many thousands of Indras have been overtaken by the power of time. 

Basic Astrological facts about Saturn:

The Saturn is of neuter gender, karaka or significator of grief and misfortune, as relationship significator it denotes subordinates, as body part significator it governs the thighs. As per planetary cabinet it have the status of servant, its temperament is cruel, insensitive and harsh, its element is vaayu or air, its primary quality or guna is tamo or dull or ignorant, by caste it is shudra or lower caste and its nature is malefic.

It is the ruler of zodiacal signs of Capricorn and Aquarius and astrological tenth and eleventh houses, its exaltation sign is Libra, debilitation sign is Aries and determent sign is Leo. It get directional strength in seventh house (west) and directional weakness in first house (east). As per planetary relationship its friends are Mercury and Venus, it is neutral with Jupiter and its enemies are Sun, Moon and Mars. Nakshatras or Lunar mansions governed by Saturn are Pushya, Anuradha and Uttara Bhadrapada. Its period as per Vimshottari Dasa is of nineteen years. It rules west direction and Saturday among the days of the week. It governs shishir or winter season and in metals iron and lead. Its gemstone is blue sapphire and substitute gemstones is lapis lazuli and black and blue are the color ruled by it. In food and flavors it governs things of astringent taste. It represents the geometrical shape of a window with four panes. Positive key words for Saturn are experience, patience, humility, wisdom, and compassion. Negative key words for Saturn are testing, sorrow, delay, disappointment, and limitation. As per Numerology numbers 8, 17, 26, 35 and all those that adds up to eight, are governed by it.
 

Physical Characteristics of the Planet Saturn

As the farthest of the planets known to ancient observers, Saturn also was noted to be the slowest-moving. At a distance from the Sun that is 9.5 times as far as Earth’s, Saturn takes approximately 29.5 Earth years to make one solar revolution. The Italian astronomer Galileo in 1610 was the first to observe Saturn with a telescope. Although he saw a strangeness in Saturn’s appearance, the low resolution of his instrument did not allow him to discern the true nature of the planet’s rings.

Saturn is a gas giant made up mostly of hydrogen and helium. Saturn is the second largest planet, big enough to hold more than 760 Earths, and is more massive than any other planet except Jupiter, roughly 95 times Earth's mass. However, Saturn has the lowest density of all the planets, and is the only one less dense than water — if there were a bathtub big enough to hold it, Saturn would float on top.

Although the other gas giants in the solar system — Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune — also have rings, those of Saturn are without a doubt the most extraordinary. The largest one to date spans up to 200 times the diameter of the planet.

Saturn is the farthest planet from Earth visible to the naked human eye. The yellow and gold bands seen in the planet's atmosphere are the result of super-fast winds in the upper atmosphere, which can reach up to 1,100 miles per hour (1,800 kilometers per hour) around its equator, combined with heat rising from the planet's interior.

Saturn spins faster than any other planet except Jupiter, completing a rotation roughly every 10-and-a-half hours. This rapid spinning causes Saturn to bulge at its equator and flatten at its poles — the planet is 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) wider at its equator than between the poles.

Saturn's most recent curiosity may be the giant hexagon circling its north pole, with each of its sides nearly 7,500 miles (12,500 kilometers) across — big enough to fit nearly four Earths inside. Thermal images show it reaches some 60 miles (100 kilometers) down into the planet's atmosphere. It remains uncertain what causes it.

Saturn occupies almost 60 percent of Jupiter’s volume but has only about one-third of its mass and the lowest mean density—about 70 percent that of water—of any known object in the solar system. Hypothetically, Saturn would float in an ocean large enough to hold it. Both Saturn and Jupiter resemble stars in that their bulk chemical composition is dominated by hydrogen. Also, as is the case for Jupiter, the tremendous pressure in Saturn’s deep interior maintains the hydrogen there in a fluid metallic state. Saturn’s structure and evolutionary history, however, differ significantly from those of its larger counterpart. Like the other giant, or Jovian, planets—Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune—Saturn has extensive systems of moons (natural satellites) and rings, which may provide clues to its origin and evolution as well as to those of the solar system. Saturn’s moon Titan is distinguished from all other moons in the solar system by the presence of a significant atmosphere, one that is denser than that of any of the terrestrial planets except Venus.

The greatest advances in knowledge of Saturn, as well as of most of the other planets, have come from deep-space probes. Four spacecraft have visited the Saturnian system: Pioneer 11 in 1979,Voyagers 1 and 2 in the two years following, and, after almost a quarter-century, Cassini-Huygens, which arrived in 2004. The first three missions were short-term flybys, but Cassini went into orbit around Saturn for years of investigations, while its Huygens probe parachuted through the atmosphere of Titan and reached its surface, becoming the first spacecraft to land on a moon other than Earth’s.Saturn's interior is probably composed of a core of iron, nickel and rock (silicon and oxygen compounds), surrounded by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen, an intermediate layer of liquid hydrogenand liquid helium and an outer gaseous layer. 
The planet exhibits a pale yellow hue due to ammonia crystals in its upper atmosphere. Electrical current within the metallic hydrogen layer is thought to give rise to Saturn's planetary magnetic field, which is slightly weaker than Earth's and around one-twentieth the strength of Jupiter's. The outer atmosphere is generally bland and lacking in contrast, although long-lived features can appear. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 km/h (1,100 mph), faster than on Jupiter, but not as fast as those on Neptune. 

Saturn has a prominent ring system that consists of nine continuous main rings and three discontinuous arcs, composed mostly of ice particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust. Sixty-two known moons orbit the planet; fifty-three are officially named. This does not include the hundreds of "moonlets" within the rings. Titan, Saturn's largest and the Solar System's second largest moon, is larger than the planet Mercury and is the only moon in the Solar System to retain a substantial atmosphere. Saturn was the Roman name for the Greek Cronos, god of farming and the father of Zeus/Jupiter. Some of its satellites were named for Titans who, according to Greek mythology, were brothers and sisters of Saturn. The newest satellites were named for Gallic (Gaul, or ancient France), Norse, and Inuit (Eskimo) giants.

SATELLITES: 

Pan (the half-human, half-goat god of pastoralism); 

Atlas (a Titan who held the heavens on his shoulders); 

Prometheus (a Titan who gave many gifts to humanity, including fire); 

Pandora (a woman who opened the box that loosed a host of plagues upon humanity); 

Janus (a two-faced Roman god who could look forward and backward at the same time); 

Epimetheus (a Greek backward-looking god); 

Mimas (a Titan felled by Hephaestus);

Enceladus (a Titan killed by Athene); 

Tethys (the wife of Oceanus and mother of all rivers); 

Telesto (a water nymph); 

Calypso (a daughter of Atlas and paramour of Odysseus); 

Dione (a sister of Cronos); 

Helene (a daughter of Zeus); 

Rhea (a daughter of Cronos); Titan; 

Hyperion (a Titan); 

Iapetus (a Titan); 

Phoebe (another name for Artemis, goddess of the moon).

Satellites discovered in 2000 are: Kiviuq, Ijiraq, Paaliaq, Skadi, Albiorix, Erriapo, Siarnaq, Tarvos, Mundilfari, Suttung, Thrym, and Ymir. One more satellite, discovered in 2003, is yet to be named.

Roman name for the Greek Cronos, father of Zeus/Jupiter. Other civilizations have given different names to Saturn, which is the farthest planet from Earth that can be observed by the naked human eye. Most of its satellites were named for Titans who, according to Greek mythology, were brothers and sisters of Saturn.

 

Basic astronomical data

Basic Astronomical facts about Saturn:

Saturn is second largest planet in our Solar System. Its surface is made up of liquid and gas. Saturn is well known for its complex ring system. It has a diameter of about 120,660 kilometers. Its closest distance from the Earth is about 1.2 billion kilometers. From Sun its distance varies from 1.35 billion kilometers to 1.5 billion kilometers. Saturn takes 29.5 years to make one orbit around the Sun and it takes 10 hours 40 minutes to complete one rotation on its axis. Its average surface temperature is –178°C. Its average geocentric motion per day is 00°02'01". Saturn have 62 natural satellites of which Titan is most famous as it is the biggest satellite in our Solar system. Saturn retrograde for about 135 days per year.
 

Saturn orbits the Sun at a mean distance of 1,427,000,000 km (887 million miles). Its closest distance to Earth is about 1.2 billion km (746 million miles), and its phase angle—the angle that it makes with the Sun and Earth—never exceeds about 6°. Saturn seen from the vicinity of Earth thus always appears nearly fully illuminated. Only deep space probes can provide sidelit and backlit views.

Like Jupiter and most of the other planets, Saturn has a regular orbit—that is, its motion around the Sun is prograde (in the same direction that the Sun rotates) and has a small eccentricity (noncircularity) and inclination to the ecliptic, the plane of Earth’s orbit. Unlike Jupiter, however, Saturn’s rotational axis is tilted substantially—by 26.7°—to its orbital plane. The tilt gives Saturn seasons, as on Earth, but each season lasts more than seven years. Another result is that Saturn’s rings, which lie in the plane of its equator, are presented to observers on Earth at opening angles ranging from 0° (edge on) to nearly 30°. The view of Saturn’s rings cycles over a 30-year period. Earth-based observers can see the rings’ sunlit northern side for about 15 years, then, in an analogous view, the sunlit southern side for the next 15 years. In the short intervals when Earth crosses the ring plane, the rings are all but invisible.

Saturn’s rotation period has not yet been well determined. Cloud motions in its massive upper atmosphere trace out a variety of periods, which are as short as about 10 hours 10 minutes near the equator and increase with some oscillation to about 30 minutes longer at latitudes higher than 40°. Scientists have attempted to determine the rotation period of Saturn’s deep interior from that of its magnetic field, which is presumed to be rooted in the planet’s metallic-hydrogen outer core.

Direct measurement of the field’s rotation is difficult because the field is highly symmetrical around the rotational axis. At the time of the Voyager encounters, radio outbursts from Saturn, apparently related to small irregularities in the magnetic field, showed a period of 10 hours 39.4 minutes; this value was taken to be the magnetic field rotation period. Measurements made 25 years later by the Cassini spacecraft indicated that the field was rotating with a period 6–7 minutes longer. It is believed that the solar wind is responsible for some of the difference between the two measurements of the rotational period. Other analyses based on Saturn’s shape and interior structure suggested that the internal rotation period could be as short as 10 hours 32 minutes or as long as 10 hours 41 minutes. The time differences between the rotation periods of Saturn’s clouds and of its interior have been used to estimate wind velocities (see below The atmosphere).

Because the four giant planets have no solid surface in their outer layers, by convention the values for the radius and gravity of these planets are calculated at the level at which one bar of atmospheric pressure is exerted. By this measure, Saturn’s equatorial diameter is 120,536 km (74,898 miles). In comparison, its polar diameter is only 108,728 km (67,560 miles), or 10 percent smaller, which makes Saturn the most oblate (flattened at the poles) of all the planets in the solar system. Its oblate shape is apparent even in a small telescope. Even though Saturn rotates slightly slower than Jupiter, it is more oblate because its rotational acceleration cancels a larger fraction of the planet’s gravity at the equator. The equatorial gravity of the planet, 896 cm (29.4 feet) per second per second, is only 74 percent of its polar gravity. Saturn is 95 times as massive as Earth but occupies a volume 766 times greater. Its mean density of 0.69 gram per cubic cm is thus only some 12 percent of Earth’s. Saturn’s equatorial escape velocity—the velocity needed for an object, which includes individual atoms and molecules, to escape the planet’s gravitational attraction at the equator without having to be further accelerated—is nearly 36 km per second (80,000 miles per hour) at the one-bar level, compared with 11.2 km per second (25,000 miles per hour) for Earth. This high value indicates that there has been no significant loss of atmosphere from Saturn since its formation.

Composition & Structure

Viewed from Earth, Saturn has an overall hazy yellow-brown appearance. The surface that is seen through telescopes and in spacecraft images is actually a complex of cloud layers decorated by many small-scale features, such as red, brown, and white spots, bands, eddies, and vortices, that vary over a fairly short time. In this way Saturn resembles a blander and less active Jupiter.

A spectacular exception occurred during September–November 1990, when a large, light-coloured storm system appeared near the equator, expanded to a size exceeding 20,000 km (12,400 miles), and eventually spread around the equator before fading. Storms similar in impressiveness to this “Great White Spot” (so named in analogy with Jupiter’s Great Red Spot) have been observed at about 30-year intervals dating back to the late 19th century. This is close to Saturn’s orbital period of 29.4 years, which suggests that these storms are seasonal phenomena.

Saturn’s atmosphere is composed mostly of molecular hydrogen and helium. The exact relative abundance of the two molecules is not well known, since helium must be measured indirectly. Currently the best estimate is that the planet’s atmosphere is 18 to 25 percent helium by mass. The remainder is molecular hydrogen and about 2 percent other molecules. Helium is less abundant relative to hydrogen compared with the composition of the Sun. If hydrogen, helium, and other elements were present in the same proportions as in the Sun’s atmosphere, Saturn’s atmosphere would be about 71 percent hydrogen and 28 percent helium by mass. According to some theories, helium may have settled out of Saturn’s outer layers.

Atmospheric composition (by volume)

96.3 percent molecular hydrogen, 3.25 percent helium, minor amounts of methane, ammonia, hydrogen deuteride, ethane, ammonia ice aerosols, water ice aerosols, ammonia hydrosulfide aerosols

Magnetic Field

Saturn has a magnetic field about 578 times more powerful than Earth's.

Chemical composition

Saturn seems to have a hot solid inner core of iron and rocky material surrounded by an outer core probably composed of ammonia, methane, and water. Next is a layer of highly compressed, liquid metallic hydrogen, followed by a region of viscous hydrogen and helium. This hydrogen and helium becomes gaseous near the planet's surface and merges with its atmosphere.

Internal structure

Saturn seems to have a core between about 10 to 20 times as massive as the Earth.

Other major molecules observed in Saturn’s atmosphere

They are methane and ammonia, which are two to seven times more abundant relative to hydrogen than in the Sun. Hydrogen sulfide and water are also suspected to be present in the deeper atmosphere but have not yet been detected. Minor molecules that have been detected spectroscopically from Earth include phosphine, carbon monoxide, and germane. Such molecules would not be present in detectable amounts in a hydrogen-rich atmosphere in chemical equilibrium. They may be products of reactions at high pressure and temperature in Saturn’s deep atmosphere, well below the observable clouds, that have been transported to visible atmospheric regions by convective motions. A number of other nonequilibrium hydrocarbons are observed in Saturn’s stratosphere: acetylene, ethane, and, possibly, propane and methyl acetylene. All of the latter may be produced by photochemical effects (see photochemical reaction) from solar ultraviolet radiation or, at higher latitudes, by energetic electrons precipitating from Saturn’s radiation belts (see below The magnetic field and magnetosphere). (A similar molecular composition is observed in Jupiter’s atmosphere, for which similar chemical processes are inferred; see Jupiter: Proportions of constituents.)

Astronomers on Earth have analyzed the refraction (bending) of starlight and radio waves from spacecraft passing through Saturn’s atmosphere to gain information on atmospheric temperatureover depths corresponding to pressures of one-millionth of a bar to 1.3 bars. At pressures less than 1 millibar, the temperature is roughly constant at about 140 to 150 kelvins (K; −208 to −190 °F, −133 to −123 °C). A stratosphere, where temperatures steadily decline with increasing pressure, extends downward from 1 to 60 millibars, at which level the coldest temperature in Saturn’s atmosphere, 82 K (−312 °F, −191 °C), is reached. At higher pressures (deeper levels) the temperature increases once again. This region is analogous to the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere, the troposphere, in which the increase of temperature with pressure follows the thermodynamic relation for compression of a gas without gain or loss of heat. The temperature is 135 K (−217 °F, −138 °C) at a pressure of 1 bar, and it continues to increase at higher pressures.

Saturn’s visible layer of clouds is formed from molecules of minor compounds that condense in the hydrogen-rich atmosphere. Although particles formed from photochemical reactions are seen suspended high in the atmosphere at levels corresponding to pressures of 20–70 millibars, the main clouds commence at a level where the pressure exceeds 400 millibars, with the highest cloud deck thought to be formed of solid ammonia crystals. The base of the ammonia cloud deck is predicted to occur at a depth corresponding to about 1.7 bars, where the ammonia crystals dissolve into the hydrogen gas and disappear abruptly. Nearly all information about deeper cloud layers has been obtained indirectly by constructing chemical models of the behaviour of compounds expected to be present in a gas of near solar composition following the temperature-pressure profile of Saturn’s atmosphere. The bases of successively deeper cloud layers occur at 4.7 bars (ammonium hydrosulfide crystals) and at 10.9 bars (water ice crystals with aqueous ammonia droplets). Although all the clouds mentioned above would be colourless in the pure state, the actual clouds of Saturn display various shades of yellow, brown, and red. These colours are apparently produced by chemical impurities, perhaps as the photochemical products rain down on the clouds from above.Phosphorus-containing molecules are also candidate colorants.

A consequence of Saturn’s large axial tilt is that the rings cast dark shadows onto the winter hemisphere, further reducing the dim winter sunlight. Cassini images of sunlit swaths of the northern hemisphere during winter revealed a surprisingly clear blue atmosphere, which perhaps was a consequence of the comparative lack of photochemical haze production in the shadows of the rings.

Even at the extremely high pressures found deeper in Saturn’s atmosphere, the minimum atmospheric temperature of 82 K is too high for molecular hydrogen to exist as a gas and a liquid together in equilibrium. Thus, there is no distinct boundary between the shallow, visible atmosphere, where the hydrogen behaves predominantly as a gas, and the deeper atmosphere, where it resembles a liquid. Unlike the case for Earth, Saturn’s troposphere does not terminate at a solid surface but apparently extends tens of thousands of kilometres below the visible clouds, becoming steadily denser and warmer, eventually reaching temperatures of thousands of kelvins and pressures in excess of one million bars.

You can also check out these cool telescopes that will help you see the beauty of planet Saturn.

Orbit & Rotation

Average Distance from the Sun               

English: 885,904,700 miles                      Metric: 1,426,725,400 km(9.5 AU)        

By Comparison: 9.53707 times that of Earth

Perihelion (closest)                                   

English: 838,519,000 miles                      Metric: 1,349,467,000 km                      

By Comparison: 9.177 times that of Earth

Aphelion (farthest)                                    

English: 934,530,000 miles                      Metric: 1,503,983,000 km                      

By Comparison: 9.886 times that of Earth

Eccentricity of orbit                                   0.054

Inclination of orbit to ecliptic                     2.49°

Saturnian year
(sidereal period of revolution)                   29.45 Earth years

Visual magnitude at mean opposition     0.7

Mean synodic period*                               378.10 Earth days

Mean orbital velocity                                  9.6 km/sec

Equatorial radius**                                     60,268 km

Polar radius**                                             54,364 km

Mass                                                           5.683 × 10²⁶ kg

Mean density                                             0.69 g/cm³

Equatorial gravity**                                    896 cm/sec²

Polar gravity**                                            1,214 cm/sec²

Equatorial escape velocity**                     35.5 km/sec

Polar escape velocity**                             37.4 km/sec

Rotation period (magnetic field)              10 hr 39 min 24 sec (Voyager era); about 10 hr 46 min (Cassini-Huygens mission)

Inclination of equator to orbit                    26.7°

Magnetic field strength at equator            0.21 gauss

Number of known moons                          62

planetary ring system                                3 major rings comprising myriad component ringlets; several less-dense rings

*Time required for the planet to return to the same position in the sky relative to the Sun as seen from Earth.
**Calculated for the altitude at which 1 bar of atmospheric pressure is exerted.

Saturn's Moons

Saturn has at least 62 moons. Since the planet was named after Cronus, lord of the titans in Greek mythology, most of Saturn's moons are named after other titans, their descendants, as well as after giants from Gallic, Inuit and Norse myths.

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is slightly larger than Mercury, and is the second-largest moon in the solar system behind Jupiter's moon Ganymede. Titan is veiled under a very thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere that might be like what Earth's was long ago, before life. While the Earth's atmosphere extends only about 37 miles (60 kilometers) into space, Titan's reaches nearly 10 times as far.

These moons can possess bizarre features. Pan and Atlas are shaped like flying saucers, Iapetus has one side as bright as snow and one side as dark as coal, and Enceladus shows evidence of "ice volcanism," spewing out water and other chemicals. A number of these satellites, such as Prometheus and Pandora, areshepherd moons, interacting with ring material to keep rings in their orbits.

Saturn's Rings

Galileo was the first to see Saturn's rings in 1610, although from his telescope they resembled handles or arms. It took Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who had a more powerful telescope, to propose that Saturn had a thin, flat ring.

Saturn actually has many rings made of billions of particles of ice and rock, ranging in size from a grain of sugar to the size of a house. The rings are believe to be debris left over from comets, asteroids or shattered moons. Although they extend thousands of miles from the planet, the main rings are typically only about 30 feet thick. Cassini revealed vertical formations in some of the rings, with particles piling up in bumps and ridges more than 2 miles (3 kilometers) high.

The rings are generally named alphabetically in the order they were discovered. They are usually relatively close to each other, with one key exception caused by the Cassini Division, a gap some 2,920 miles (4,700 kilometers) wide. The main rings, working out from the planet, are known as C, B and A, with the Cassini Division separating B and A. The innermost is the extremely faint D ring, while the outermost to date, revealed in 2009, could fit a billion Earths within it.

Mysterious spokes have been seen in Saturn's rings, which might form and disperse over a few hours. Scientists have conjectured these spokes might be composed of electrically charged sheets of dust-sized particles created by small meteors impacting the rings or electron beams from the planet's lightning. Saturn's F Ring also has a curious braided appearance — it is composed of several narrow rings, and bends, kinks, and bright clumps in them can give the illusion that these strands are braided.

Research & Exploration

The first spacecraft to reach Saturn was Pioneer 11 in 1979, flying within 13,700 miles (22,000 kilometers) of it, which discovered the planet's two of its outer rings as well as the presence of a strong magnetic field. The Voyager spacecraft discovered the planet's rings are made up of ringlets, and sent back data that led to the discovery or confirmation of the existence of nine moons.

The Cassini spacecraft now in orbit around Saturn is the largest interplanetary spacecraft ever built, a two-story-tall probe that, at 6 tons in weight (5,650 kilograms), is roughly equal in mass to an empty 30-passenger school bus. It discovered plumes on the icy moon Enceladus, and carried the Huygens probe, which plunged through Titan's atmosphere to successfully land on its surface.

Saturn's Gravitational Impact on the Solar System

As the most massive planet in the solar system after Jupiter, the pull of Saturn's gravity has helped shape the fate of our system. It might have helped violently hurl Neptune and Uranus outward. It, along with Jupiter, might alos have slung a barrage of debris toward the inner planets early in the system's history.

Possibility of Life

The life found on Earth could not live on Saturn, and scientists doubt that any form of life exists there.

Body parts, function 

The Sun is the life giver to our physical bodies and controls the prana or life force. The placement of the Sun is very important for overall health as it governs entire constitution of the body. No number of words can express the Sun's importance in bodily functioning. It specifically rules the heart, eyes, upper back and spine, aorta and blood circulation. Every heart related problem arise due to affliction to Sun or its sign Leo, this includes enlarged heart conditions, palpitations of the heart, cholesterol-related degeneration of the heart, angina, pericarditis, endocarditis, blood pressure and heart attacks. High fevers, back problem, diseases of the bone marrow, rheumatic fever and sunstroke. 

Sun Signs Education and Career

It signifies studies related to tradition, philosophy and spiritualism. It rules over all types of fuel and their extraction, excretory system and all works related  to drainage, plumbing etc. it is signifier of labour, artisan, works, factory, refrigeration, low cadre work or services, physical and hard work of all kinds, glass or tile factories, metaphysics, philosophy, gardener, lead astronomy,  agriculture, footwear etc . It is a bridge between high and the low. A strong unafflicted Saturn is treated as strong signification of discipline, system and keen provision of life.

Professions governed by the Saturn:Saturn represents all career and vocations that are related to hard labor, tradition, the practical, real estate, the old and the conservative. Saturn denotes people working or associated with labour and menial jobs like working as peon, servants, industry and factory workers, domestic work, driver, cabman, and working on manpower. 

All career and jobs associated with mines, farms, agriculture, gardeners, cemetery, excavators, real estate, builders, bricklayers, tanners, hides, coal, ice, and tombstone makers. Priests, monks, nuns, night workers and night watchmen are also denoted by Saturn due to strict, hard, conservative and lonely life of people connected with these jobs.  

Manufacture and trading in rail engines and locomotives of all kinds including manufacture and trading in cars, lorries, trucks, heavy vehicles and all other kinds of transport vehicles of auto and non-auto type like bullock and horse-carts are also associated with Saturn. It also includes all those associated with theft, robbery, dacoit, plundering, pick-pocketing, and any other kind of criminal or other unlawful activities.

DISEASES GOVERNED SATURN:

Rheumatic troubles of all kinds, diseases of the feet and stomach, morbidness, gastric and phlegmatic troubles, bruises from stones and trees and gaseous ailments.

Saturn itself is considered a planet of diseases, sorrows and old age. Rheumatic pains, nervous disorders, arthritis, bones problems, fractures, paralysis, osteoporosis, sever depression and old age related diseases etc. are the indicator of malefic Saturn.

Saturn : Shani
Saturn relates to : Delays, Obstruction. In Shani Dasha every thing happens slowly, Dejection. Is Lord of the 8 th house, gives happiness from  Immovable property like Mars but has a second place after Mars. Together if Saturn and Moon are in any house then it is a very bad aspect. Sat-Mars Conjunction is bad for health. An event is delayed by Saturn but success is not denied.

Plants - Astrology and Mythology

Plants seen from an astrological perspective. See how zodiac signs and plants (trees, shrubs, herbs, crawlers, bulbs, vegetables, annuals, fruits and nuts) are connected.The myths sourrounding the plants and the facts revealed, their medicinal properties give a flavour to your basic need from mother nature.How Plants are connected with the Planets ?

Saturn

- Herbs like agrimony, arnica, belladona, blue bottle, cannabis, fumitory, gravel root, henbane, horsetail, knapweed, knotgrass,safflower.
- Shrubs like andrographis, coca, guelder rose, ignatius, quince, solomons seal.
-Trees like almonds, balm of gilead, elm slippery, ginkgo, holly tree, peepal tree., olive tree.

The Mantras for Saturn:

Beej Mantra of Saturn:	Om pram preem proum sah shanaischaraye namah
Saturn stotra:	Neelanjana samabhasam ravi putram yamagrajam chaaya martanda sambhutam tam namami shanaischaraye
Gayatri Mantra of Saturn:	Om kaak dhwajaaya vidmahae khadga hastaaya dheemahi tanno mandah prachodayaat

Remedies for Saturn which are performed if Saturn is not well placed in the horoscope:

1.    Worshiping of Lord Hanuman.

2.    Recitation of Hanuman Chalisa and Maha mrityunjaya Mantra.

3.    Reciting of Saturn Mantras.

4.    Charity: Donate black cloths, things made of iron, mustard oil, black sesame on Saturdays to old men.

5.    Fasting: On Saturdays.

6.    Pooja: Hanuman pooja.

7.    Rudraksh: Wear seven mukhi (seven faced) Rudraksh.