essay on saturn and its rings

In 1859 James Clerk Maxwell published On the Stability of the Motion of Saturn's Rings. Maxwell was awarded the Adams Prize for his essay which contained many pages of detailed mathematical calculations. We give below an extract from the essay, essentially the beginning and end of the essay with around 60 pages of mathematical calculations omitted:- On the Stability of the Motion of Saturn's Rings Statement of the Problem There are some questions in Astronomy, to which we are attracted rather on account of their peculiarity, as the possible illustration of some unknown principle, than from any direct advantage which their solution would afford to mankind. The theory of the Moon's inequalities, though in its first stages it presents theorems interesting to all students of mechanics, has been pursued into such intricacies of calculation as can be followed up only by those who can make the improvement of the Lunar Tables the object of their lives. The value of the labours of these men is recognized by all who are aware of the importance of such tables in Practical Astronomy and Navigation. The methods by which the results are obtained are admitted to be sound, and we leave to professional astronomers the labour and the merit of developing them. The questions which are suggested by the appearance of Saturn's Rings cannot, in the present state of Astronomy, call forth so great an amount of labour among mathematicians. I am not aware that any practical use has been made of Saturn's Rings, either in Astronomy or in Navigation. They are too-distant, and too insignificant in mass, to produce any appreciable effect on the motion of other parts of the Solar system; and for this very reason it is difficult to determine those elements of their motion which we obtain so accurately in the case of bodies of greater mechanical importance. But when we contemplate the Rings from a.
Saturn is the second biggest planet, but it’s also the lightest planet.  If there was a bathtub big enough to hold Saturn, it would float in the water! Saturn Fast Facts Distance from Sun  Approximately 856 million miles Number of Moons  More than 30 (we're discovering more all the time -- 18 have been named    Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the second largest moon in the entire solar system. Diameter  Approximately 75,000 miles  (120,000 km)   the second largest planet -- more than 9 Earths could line up across it! Composition    97% Hydrogen gas, about 3% helium gas and about 0.05% methane, plus ammonia.  You could not stand on the surface because it's gaseous. Length of Day  10 hours, 39 minutes in Earth time (the length of one rotation)   flattened at the poles because of its very rapid rotation Length of a Year  29.5 Earth years   (the length of one orbit around the sun) Name  named for the Roman god of agriculture.  The day Saturday is also named after him. Discovered by:   Saturn has been observed in the night sky since ancient times but Galileo was the first to observe it with a telescope in 1610. Visited by  Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Cassini (2004) Saturn's Rings Saturn's rings can be seen with even a small telescope.  A larger telescope show that there are multiple rings. What are the rings made of?The rings are made of chunks of rock and ice -- some just tiny pieces of dust, some more than half a mile (one km) across. How big are the RingsVery wide:  150,000 miles in diameterbut very thin:  only a few hundred yards thick. Where did they comefrom?  We don't know!  Maybe they're left over material from when the planet formed.  Perhaps they're the remains of moons that were destroyed when impacted by other bodies. Seasons on Saturn:   Earth's equator is tilted 23 degrees.  It is this tilt that gives the planet its 4 seasons.  Each year, as we.
Saturn in natural color, photographed by Cassini in July 2008, approaching equinox. This article is about the planet. For other uses, see Saturn (disambiguation). Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius about nine times that of Earth.[10][11] Although only one-eighth the average density of Earth, with its larger volume Saturn is just over 95 times more massive.[12][13][14] Saturn is named after the Roman god of agriculture; its astronomical symbol (♄) represents the god's sickle. Saturn's interior is probably composed of a core of iron–nickel and rock (silicon and oxygen compounds). This core is surrounded by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen, an intermediate layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium, and finally outside the Frenkel line a gaseous outer layer.[15] Saturn has 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 weaker than Earth's, but has a magnetic moment 580 times that of Earth due to Saturn's larger size. Saturn's magnetic field strength is around one-twentieth of Jupiter's.[16] 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 (500 m/s), higher than on Jupiter, but not as high as those on Neptune.[17] Saturn has a prominent ring system that consists of nine continuous main rings and three discontinuous arcs and that is composed mostly of ice particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust. Sixty-two[18] moons are known to orbit Saturn, of which fifty-three are officially named. This does not include the hundreds of moonlets comprising the rings. Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and the second-largest in the.
Enter Your Search Terms to Get Started! Planet Saturn: One of the Most Interesting Planets Saturn Saturn is one of the most interesting planets in the solar system. It is the sixth planet in the solar system, and is most famous for its stunning array of rings. It is a very easy planet to pick out in the sky because it is one of the brightest lights in the shy. It also has a very faint greenish color that makes it stand out from the rest of the objects in the sky ( Astronomy for Kids ). Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter being the only planet that is bigger. It also has at least eighteen moons, more than any other planet in the solar system. There have been three voyages to this extraordinary planet, and one is still in process today. The Pioneer II traveled to Saturn in September of 1979, the Voyager missions took place in the 1980's and the Cassini probe began it's voyage in October of 1997 (Kuhn 280-282). There are many aspects of Saturn that make it one of the most extraordinary planets in this solar system. Galileo Galilei was the first to view Saturn's system of rings in the year 1610. Because he happened to be viewing their edge, he failed to recognize them as rings. In fact, he mistakenly interpreted the rings to be two moons similar to those he had discovered near the planet Jupiter. In 1655, a Dutch astronomer named Christiaan Huygens was able to discern what Galileo had thought to be moons as rings. Huygens benefited from a much improved telescope than that used by Galileo. A second moon of Saturn called Iapetus was found by the Italian astronomer Cassini in 1671. He also discovered, in 1675, that Saturn had more than one ring, i.e. a concentric pair of rings. A third ring was discovered by Johann Franz Encke in 1837 using a telescope at the Berlin observatory. Until Pioneer II approached Saturn in September of 1979, the planet.
Advertisement.EnchantedLearning.com is a user-supported site. As a bonus, site members have access to a banner-ad-free version of the site, with print-friendly pages.Click here to learn more. (Already a member? Click here.) Advertisement.EnchantedLearning.com is a user-supported site. As a bonus, site members have access to a banner-ad-free version of the site, with print-friendly pages.Click here to learn more. (Already a member? Click here.) Table of Contents Enchanted LearningAll About Astronomy Site Index Your weight on the Planets The Planets Your age on the Planets SATURN'S RINGS RINGS Saturn's beautiful rings are only visible from Earth using a telescope. They were first observed by Galileo in 1610 (using his 20-power telescope). The rings are divided into 8 major ring divisions. There are two main sections (called rings A and B) plus the smaller ring (Ring C or the Crepe ring), D and F rings; the larger gap in the rings is called the Cassini division; the smaller one is the Encke division. Starting closest to Saturn, the rings and divisions are: D, C, B, The Cassini Division, A, the Encke division, and F (subdivided into G and E, and a ring with visible clumps of matter, called knots). A huge, distant eighth ring tilted 27 degrees from the planet's main ring plane was discovered in 2009. Saturn's moon Prometheus and Pandora, shepherding Saturn's narrow, outer F Ring. The rings show intricate structure; some of this structure is from the gravitational effect of shepherding moons, but much about these rings is unknown. Saturn's bright rings are made of ice chunks and rocks that range in size from the size of a fingernail to the size of a car. Although the rings are very extremely wide (almost 185,000 miles = 300,000 km in diameter), they are very thin (about 0.6 miles = 1 km thick). Ring/Gap Start radius (km) from the center of Saturn End radius (km) Width (km).