Interesting Facts About Saturn

Saturn is one of the most prominent and distinguished planets in our night sky. It's a giant, more so than Jupiter, because it has a beauty we can really see, a tangibility. If you haven't yet, you need to find a telescope and check out Saturn in the sky. What you see is something very memorable, and truly extraordinary.

It’s also very mysterious because knowledge about it is still very unknown. How many moons does Saturn have? How many rings does Saturn have? How did Saturn get its name? What is Saturn made of?

There are many interesting facts about Saturn, all intriguing, all awe-inspiring.

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Saturn controls a family of about 17 moons - the most out of any of the planets in the solar system. The largest moon, about as big as mercury, is called Titan. It has an atmosphere that is thick with nitrogen, much denser than the atmosphere of Mercury. Many astronomers infer that really Titan is just a small planet orbiting a larger planet. Also some of the other moons appear to have more sustainable atmospheres, which - as we go forward - is important in our exploration of our sky. Imagine one day living on one of these moons, your kitchen view the trillions of white rocks that circle Saturn. Forget ocean views; I want a view of Saturn's rings.

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If I was an astronaut, that's where i would want to go. I would want to float just above those rings - to be able to look in both directions and see a highway of sparkles stretching out into the depths on the universe. The incredible thing is that this is possible. The rings wouldn't be very dangerous at all, as long as you had the same velocity as the moonlets - which is a very, very small speed.

Of course I won't ever do this, and -except for maybe a select few - the rest of you won't either. But we do have our telescopes. The rings from a distance look like a solid sheet, and - since they are more reflective - appear brighter than the planet itself. Therefore the small sphere you see in your lens appears to have a halo surrounding it. It's quite godly.

The next time the stars decide to unveil themselves completely, call up a neighbor or a friend with a telescope. Take a look at Saturn. Imagine walking on those rings. Imagine waking up to that quintessential view. It's easy if you try. The future may be closer than you think.

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How did Saturn get its name? Like the rest of the planets of our solar system the planet Saturn was named after a Greek god. Saturn the planet is named after the Greek god Saturnus.

The rings of Saturn are its most famous and most distinguishable feature. In reality they are enormous - from one end to the other they are more than two-thirds the distance from the Earth to the Moon. The rings consist of trillions and trillions tiny ice moonlets, each one with their own orbit around Saturn. It's amazing if you think about it: the complexity of trillions of tiny objects orbiting around a single entity. They rarely converge with each other, creating a spectacle the contains both symmetry and unfounded beauty. The Saturn sky would look wonderful; the combination of the stars and the trillions of other white dots would create a tapestry like no other.

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