SCIENCE CONCEPT
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in our solar system. Adorned with a dazzling system of icy rings, Saturn is unique among the planets.
It is not the only planet to have rings, but none are as spectacular or as complex as Saturn's. Like fellow gas giant Jupiter, Saturn is a massive ball made mostly of hydrogen and helium. The farthest planet from Earth discovered by the unaided human eye, Saturn has been known since ancient times. The planet is named for the Roman god of agriculture and wealth, who was also the father of Jupiter. |
APPLICATION
Some of the most surprising scientific findings have come from encounters with Saturn's fascinating, dynamic moons. Cassini's observations of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, have given scientists a glimpse of what Earth might have been like before life was created.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in our solar system. Adorned with a dazzling system of icy rings, Saturn is unique among the planets. It is not the only planet to have rings, but none are as spectacular or as complex as Saturn's. |
CAREER
The career that studies Saturn is called astronomers. They make one hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year to one hundred and sixty thousand a year. There are almost ten thousand astronomers in the world today. As an astronomer, you can work in observational astronomy, using telescopes and cameras to look at the stars, galaxies and other astronomical objects, or in theoretical astronomy, where you'll use math and computer models to explain observations.
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SCIENTIST
Galileo Galilei was the first to observe Saturn with a telescope in 1610. Because of the crudeness of his telescope, he couldn't determine what the rings were. He incorrectly guessed that there were two large moons on either side of Saturn. Two years later when he viewed Saturn again, the "moons" had disappeared. We know now this is because Galileo was viewing the rings edge-on so that they were invisible, but at the time it was very confusing to Galileo. After another two years, Galileo viewed Saturn again and found that the "moons" had returned. He concluded that the rings were "arms" of some sort.
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