Saturn Documentary 4K | What's Inside this Mysterious Planet?

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] going by the name jewel of the solar system Saturn is considered by many astronomers as the most beautiful planet in the solar system whether this title was given because of its thick majestic rings or its sheer brilliant luminescence the planet has continued to be a source of marvel for both scientists and everyone else it's yellowish tint gives it a more mysterious vibe and the rings around it are just simply breathtaking when observed through a telescope sixth from the Sun and found just beyond the asteroid belt the majestic Saturn stands out from all the other planets because of its prominent and beautiful rings these rings made of debris of ice and rocks may not exactly be unique to Saturn as they're also found in other gas giants Jupiter Neptune and Uranus however Saturn's thick band of ringlets is considered the most complicated and remarkable of all the other planets as the second largest planet in our solar system Saturn is a massive ball of gas composed mostly of hydrogen and helium it's large enough to fit about nine earth sized planets placed side by side to each other in fact it's large enough that approximately 750 earths could cram inside of it yet despite its great size Saturn is only one-eighth the average density of Earth Saturn makes a complete revolution around the Sun for approximately 29.5 Earth years this means that the next time Saturn gets close to the earth again will be in 2091 at a distance of 8.03 astronomical units the gas giant is around 9.5 astronomical units away from the Sun or approximately 1.5 billion kilometres from this far it takes about an hour and 20 minutes for the rays of sunlight to reach Saturn the history of Saturn because of its high reflectivity Saturn can be observed by the naked eye on a clear night on Earth its brightness has led many ancient civilizations to believe that the planet is just an unusually bright star some even believe it to be a sun-like object thus naming it after the god of wealth and agriculture himself Saturn has played a huge role in early astronomy that was used as a basis and naming one of the days of the week Saturday Saturn is the farthest planet visible to the Uni and has been recorded in ancient times that it's impossible to credit its discovery to anyone in particular although the first records were discovered amongst records of ancient Assyrians in 722 Greek god Cronus it's astronomical symbol is based on its namesakes sickle other ancient astrology who have observed and made records of this particularly bright planet include the Hindu civilization who named it Saturn Shani while the ancient Japanese and Chinese cultures assigned it as the Earth star based on the five elements used to classify natural elements the ancient hebrew called saturn Shibata although the rings have not been discovered until well over the 1600s some ancient cultures may have had an idea about them the maori people of New Zealand for example have reference to the planet as para RAL or surrounded by a headband the first telescopic observation of the planet was done by Galileo Galilei in 1610 although he was not able to observe the planets rings with his crewed telescope at the time the rings of Saturn were discovered by the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens in 1659 almost half a century after it was observed by Galileo Galilei Saturn is said to have been formed with the rest of the solar system some four and a half billion years ago its formation is most likely caused by a gravitational force pulling gas and dust together to form a large ball of pale yellow gas it then settled on its position around the Sun after half a billion years after its creation Saturn to the naked eye visible to the naked eye on a clear cloudless night Saturday is the farthest of the five planets that one can locate in the night sky without aid from a telescope other planets include Mercury Venus Mars and Jupiter while Uranus and at times four Vesta may also be visible to the naked eye for someone on earth looking at the night sky Saturn should look like a bright yellowish point of light its brightness will vary depending on the inclination of the ring system with the brightest reported at a magnitude of negative 0.55 when the plane of the Rings is inclined highly well at its least bright when the Rings are in the least inclined the Rings are not visible to the naked eye and need very large binoculars or small telescopes to be able to see Saturn's rings because both the Earth's and Saturn's orbits around the Sun are eccentric their distance from the Sun varies over time which means that on any given day there will be varying brightness and angles Saturn looks the best from Earth when it's located at a 180 degree opposition from our home planet from time to time Saturn is occulted or hidden by the moon due to its inclination this occultation should take place every month of year followed by around a 5 year period where this phenomenon does not Saturn rotation for a planet its size the planet is relatively fast on its axis making it the second planet with the shortest day after Jupiter a Saturnian day which is the time it takes for the planet to make a complete rotation takes only about ten point seven earth hours its axes tilt which is the angle by which the planet rotates as it orbits the Sun is it twenty six point seven three degrees which is like that of Earth's which is twenty-three point five degrees this entails that Saturn also experiences seasons like that of Earth with a relatively hotter climate at the equator Saturn takes about twenty nine and a half years to orbit around the Sun its axial rotation gives it an oblate spheroid shape which means that it looks a little flat in the poles and bulges at the equator this bulge and rotation lead scientists to believe that the surface gravity along the equator is up to 75 percent greater than the gravity at the poles if a person from Earth observed Saturn through a small telescope the planet will look flat or in two dimension because of this phenomenon özil like the other gaseous planets Saturn also displays evidence of having a different rotation time for its core and its atmosphere the official rotation however remains to be at 10 hours and 33 minutes earth hours per Saturn day lair composition Mike Jupiter and many of the other gaseous planets in the darker side of the asteroid belt Saturn is a ball of gases and a potentially dense metallic center that's most likely iron and nickel covered by a rocky material and elements that have solidified due to intense pressure and heat it's theorized that Saturn's core is like Jupiter enveloped in liquid hydrogen only a little smaller the core is described to be very hot reaching up to eleven thousand seven hundred degrees Celsius and radiates 2.5 times more energy than it receives from the Sun Saturn's heat is a topic of speculation as it could not have been mainly gravitational compression alone that's heated the core up since it's not as massive as its neighbor Jupiter an alternate theory is that there's an additional mechanism causing this heat this mechanism includes the raining out of droplets of helium deep in the interior these droplets sink through the lower density hydrogen causing friction and thereby release heat this also means that there's a depletion of the amount of helium in Saturn's outer layers these helium rain combined with gaseous pressure will most likely cause compression of the droplets making scientists believe that the planet might experience diamond rainfall within its layers this liquid layer is then covered by a full outer gaseous layer these hydrogen and helium components are like many planets in the solar system and are also identified as the most common elements of the Sun the metallic liquid layer mostly made up of liquid hydrogen emits an electrical current that's attributed to giving the planet its magnetic field this magnetic field is said to be weaker than that of the earth but he has a magnetic moment that's higher than that of our home planet despite the many layers Saturn could literally float on water having a density that's about 30% less than water it's the only planet to have this characteristic in all the known planets of our solar system so far Saturn is considered to have no true surface which means that theories of a solid core are still to be proven its composition would make it hard for exploration missions as spacecrafts would have no solid layers to land on while those that would even try to penetrate its gaseous layers would most likely be crushed by extreme pressure and temperature Saturn as observed by telescopes and later spacecrafts sports a pale yellow color mostly because of the presence of ammonia crystals in its upper atmosphere clouds that appear like faint stripes jet streams and storms blanket Saturn's atmosphere mixing browns and grays and its overall yellowish glow other than ammonia traces of propane methane ethane acetylene phosphine and methane are also present in the atmosphere all making up the majestic planet that is Saturn water is also present in the atmosphere rings known for its majestic rings Saturn is assumed to be pits and pieces of shattered comets asteroids and old moons that were floating aimlessly in space prior to being pulled by the planet's gravitational pull while another theory is that the manner that makes up the Rings come from the same material that forms the planet itself new data from Cassini show that different rings may have been formed at different times but many are formed relatively late the rings of today consist of small chunks of ice and rocks in varying sizes from as small as dust size icy grains to ones as big and large as mountains although predominantly water ice the ring particles also have a trace amount of Follin and to some extent more amorphous carbon it's divided into seven groups when observed from the top of Saturn the rings are mostly white because of this color the Rings help in increasing Saturn's brightness because of their reflection however these rings cannot be seen by the naked eye from an observer from Earth Saturn's ring system is very complex and is the most extensive of any planet in the solar system before a close-up observation of the Rings early astronomers once thought the ring to be one solid band when putting together the Rings are as wide as four and a half earths further studies show that these rings are considered annular discs with an average of around 20 meters in thickness they're not formed from one solid part but rather have particle density drops these drops are caused by two known Saturnian moons embedded within the Rings while others may have been caused by destabilizing orbital resonance by Saturn's other moons well others remain unexplained the largest of these gaps is called Cassini division after Giovanni Cassini it was determined that Saturn's ring is a system of thinner smaller rings with gaps in between the Cassini division separates the wide inner B ring to the outer a ring twice every Saturn year or every 15 earth years the rings briefly disappear on earth mainly because of how they're angled and because they're very thin the next ring disappearance is scheduled in 2025 opportunities to observe this event however are hindered by Saturn's relative closeness to the Sun during that time the rings are named alphabetically in order of its discovery thus the main rings going outward from the planet are C B and a the most recent rings are the F ring which is just outside the a ring and the G ring which is a faint ring beyond the F ring of all Saturn's rings the B ring is considered the largest brightest and most massive and contains a variety of density and brightness the F ring on the other hand is located on the outskirts and considered by many scientists as the most active ring in the solar system ringg F's features change rather fast and transform every few hours or so these rings are confined by shepherd moons Pandora and Prometheus who prevent materials inside the Rings from spreading out these moons are important in maintaining the rings forms on the other hand the formations of linear density waves and Saturn's rings that facilitate the approximation of its mass are caused by the planets moons can and atlas recent studies have confirmed that Saturn may be losing its rings as they get pulled in by the planet's gravitational force the pole is particularly high in the planet's magnetic field and is compared to a drain pulling in water products from the ring system leading to depletion in the next hundred million years the water drained from the rings to the planet is referred to as ring rain as we see the Saturn rings go into depletion it makes scientists wonder if other ringed planets used to have more prominent ring systems Saturn's moons Saturn is considered the king of the moons in our solar system of the planets in our solar system Saturn has the largest number of known natural satellites 53 of which are confirmed and named while 29 others are awaiting confirmation this also gives room for a variety in terms of shapes and sizes with tiny moonlets only the size of small sports arenas to large ones the size of mercury of all these moons only 13 have diameters greater than 50 kilometers of the many moons of Saturn only 24 are considered regular satellites which means that they have orbits that are inclined with the planets equatorial plane these wounds are mainly named after the Titans or the giant brothers and sisters of the god Saturn while others are named after folklore giants of Inuit French and North European origin Saturnian moons are also considered in resonance either to the planet itself or each other and thus provides a complicated network of resonance force keeping the planet its natural satellites and rings together Titan is the second largest moon in the solar system and its 5149 kilometres in diameter among all the moons in the solar system Titan is the only one with a substantial atmosphere and the only place besides earth that has rivers lakes and seas on the surface many scientific efforts have been planned soon to further study Titan for the possibility of supporting human life it's often described as a planet like moon its atmosphere is like that of Earth's composed mainly of nitrogen but is thicker which blocks out the Sun and thus the speculation of this natural satellites capacity to support life many believe that the atmosphere of a younger earth should be similarly composed as that of the current atmosphere of Titan Titan like its name is very massive that it's bigger in size than the planet Mercury but it's only 40 percent of its mass it goes around Saturn every 15 days and 22 hours and is tidally locked to its parent planet which means it only shows one side of its face to Saturn on the other hand Hyperion which is an irregular moon locked in resonance with Titan is unique in that its surface is irregularly shaped has a chaotic rotation schedule and looks like a sponge many of the other moons in Saturn are classified as dirty snowballs consisting mainly of rock ice and a rock ice slush like Rhea Saturn's second largest moon an impetus where a ridge runs along the three-quarters of its equators Rhea is considered an old geologically dead moon which means that even if there is evidence of its geologic activities in the past there have been no recent ones as evidenced by the old scarring on its surface and no new ones on top I am fidus on the other hand is known for being two-toned earning it the nickname yin yang of the solar system the contrasting colors however is different in the timing of the different hemispheric rotations another interesting Saturnian satellite is Enceladus which is known for its highly active geological events and for shooting out Jets of water vapour and specks of dust forming plumes off at South Pole studies of this omission indicate hydrothermal activity in the moon's subsurface ocean these emissions are credited to be the source material for Saturn's earring it's currently the only moon in Saturn's natural satellite system that shows activity geologically and is also known as the smallest body in the solar system with the same activity this natural satellite not only emits icy particles and water vapors there's evidence that it also limits organic compounds which are basics for cell and life formation these compounds which are known as the ingredients of life include the elements nitrogen and sulfur that are the basis for protein formation protein is then usually found only in living creatures this evidence leads scientists who want to check the moon surface and even subsurface to try to find traces of life and salad as' unlike other moons is covered in fresh clean ice giving it a white appearance at a very reflective surface because of its ability to reflect a lot of light off its pure ice layers and salad as is considered one of these shiniest objects in the solar system whether in Saturn unlike a lot of other planets in the solar system Saturn's weather does not rely on the sun's activities it's weather condition is determined by the movement of its different gaseous layers it even has its own heat generating mechanism making the planets weather system is known to go through several extremes giving its surface features that enable observers to discern the planet's overall weather condition at any given time it's high strong winds bring great long-running storms set streams and hurricanes Saturn's sound thanks to the spacecraft Cassini a lot of interesting knowledge has been collected about Saturn one of these findings includes an intense radio emission which creates an eerie sound coming from the planet [Music] these sounds are closely associated with the Aurora's near the planets poles the first radio wave emission DTEC today scene II was in April of 2002 these sounds turned out to be very similar to the radio emission of the Aurora on earth the sounds collected that radio sources may have been emitted and moved along the magnetic field lines of the Aurora region Saturn missions of the different flyby spacecrafts that were able to capture images of Saturn and its moons the orbital Cassini which was built particularly to study Saturn and its moons have made the most discoveries and have brought new knowledge and honestly a lot more questions about the planet the spacecraft spent 13 years starting in 2004 gathering information about the project Cassini was intentionally vaporized in Saturn's atmosphere in 2017 giving saturn and additional two tons from the Cassini debris several important data that Cassini was able to contribute include the discovery of lightning in Saturn finding evidence of liquid water and geysers on Enceladus the discovery of planetary rings inside the G and E Rings hydrocarbon lakes in Titan it was able to discover and confirm eight new natural satellites during its 13 years it was also able to identify hurricanes that are larger and faster than those on earth it later made its own atmospheric entry when it was pressed and disintegrated by the planet's extreme atmospheric pressure other than Cassini three more spacecrafts have gone and visited Saturn these are NASA's pioneer 11 and Voyager one and two all the three later crafts were made for deep space exploration and only did a flyby observation and image capturing activity on around the planet and its moons many countries have expressed interest in conducting further exploration missions either from afar using better technology or at close range by launching both orbiters and Landers in either Saturn itself or its moons they have a lot of interest to the future of the natural satellites Titan and Enceladus for their potential to our life atmosphere Saturn's atmosphere shows banded patterns like that of Jupiter but these bands are much fainter and wider near the equator it has several cloud patterns in its thick atmosphere composed of varying elements depending on the depth of the amount of pressure on it clouds on the upper layer consist of ammonia ice and have a range of about 100 to 150 K the pressure is somewhere between 0.5 to negative 2 bar underneath it where pressure is relatively higher our water ice clouds beginning at around the 2.5 bar level to 9.5 bar temperatures at the water ice cloud level is around 185 to 270 K at this layer one will find bands of ammonium hydrosulfide ice and finally at the level nearest the core where pressures reach up to 19 to 20 bars and the temperatures are as high as 272 330 k water is in droplet form well ammonia is an aqueous solution this means that as you go down Saturn's atmosphere the pressure is so strong that it liquefies gas this would make it impossible for current earth technology to reach Saturn's core [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: DTTV - Science Answers

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Id: m8pw7zueMjg

Length: 26min 40sec (1600 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 04 2020