This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the ringed planet Saturn shows a rare storm that appears a

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This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the
ringed planet Saturn shows a rare storm that
appears as a white arrowhead-shaped feature near
the planet's equator. The storm is generated by
an upwelling of warmer air, similar to a
terrestrial thunderhead. The east-west extent of
this storm is equal to the diameter of the Earth
(about 7,900 miles).
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The best view of Saturn's rings in the
ultraviolet indicates there is more ice toward
the outer part of the rings, than in the inner
part, hinting at the origins of the rings and
their evolution.
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This montage of images of the Saturnian system
was prepared from an assemblage of images taken
by the Voyager 1 spacecraft during its Saturn
encounter in November 1980.
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Saturn Saturn, god of harvest or time of
reaping (sixth planet from the sun).
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885,904,700 Miles By Comparison 9.53707 x Earth
Revolution Period about the Sun
29.5 years
37,449 miles By Comparison 9.449 x Earth
235,298 miles
Number of Moons
31
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Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar
system, second to Jupiter. Its color is somewhat
yellow. Since it is one of the planets that are
visible with the naked eye, its existence has
been known since prehistoric times so we do not
know who first discovered the planet. However, it
is the faintest of the five visible planets, so
it was probably discovered last. The first person
to observe the planet using a telescope was
Galileo in 1610. While he was the first person to
see the rings, he was unable to explain what he
saw.
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Many people like Saturn's rings. Although Saturn
isn't the only planet with rings, it is the only
planet famous for them. Almost every image or
drawing of the planet has the rings included. But
few people know much about them or why they are
there. Saturn's rings are made mostly of ice and
rock pieces. It looks like one big band, but is
actually many smaller bands combined. The
particles range in size from a couple centimeters
to over a kilometer in size. The rings are very
thin. Although they reach diameters in the
hundred thousands kilometers, they are no more
than 1.5 km thick. So how can such a thin layer
of ice pieces be so beautiful? The ice creates a
rainbow effect much like a sprinkler does in the
sun. The Sun's rays are refracted by the frozen
water, giving us a colorful display!
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Titan stands in a class by itself as Saturn's
largest satellite and the second largest moon in
the solar system (after Jupiter's Ganymede). It
is even larger than the planets Mercury and
Pluto. Titan is the only moon in the solar system
with a significant atmosphere, thicker even than
Earth's, and composed largely of nitrogen, like
Earth's.
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Titan and Earth, to Scale.