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The outer atmosphere is generally bland and lacking in contrast, although long-lived features can appear. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 kilometres per hour (1,100 miles per hour). The planet has a bright and extensive system of rings, composed mainly of ice particles, with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust.
The timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their natural satellites charts the progress of the discovery of new bodies over history. Each object is listed in chronological order of its discovery (multiple dates occur when the moments of imaging, observation, and publication differ), identified through its various designations (including temporary and permanent schemes), and the ...
Moons have come to exist around most planets and many other Solar System bodies. These natural satellites originated by one of three possible mechanisms: Co-formation from a circumplanetary disc (only in the cases of the giant planets); Formation from impact debris (given a large enough impact at a shallow angle); and; Capture of a passing object.
Determining the length of a single day on a planet is usually pretty easy. You just pick a landmark and wait for it to reach the exact same point twice in its rotation and you have your answer.
1979 – Pioneer 11 flies by Saturn, providing the first ever closeup images of the planet and its rings. It discovers the planet's F ring and determines that its moon Titan has a thick atmosphere. [199] 1979 – Goldreich and Tremaine postulate that Saturn's F ring is maintained by shepherd moons, a prediction that would be confirmed by ...
Famously known for its extensive ring system, Saturn is one of four planets in our solar system that have the distinctive feature. And now, scientists hypothesize that Earth may have sported its ...
Saturn – 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 . [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Although only one-eighth the average density of Earth, with its larger volume Saturn is just over 95 times more massive.
Cassini finished 13 years of studying Saturn and its moons in 2017 with a death plunge into the huge ringed planet's atmosphere. Cassini's observations of the icy surface of Mimas did not spot any ...