Saturn: Ringed Wonder

1
Saturn Ringed Wonder

• Presented by
• Professor Harold Geller
• Department of Physics and Astronomy
• George Mason University

2
What Im Going to Talk About

• Saturn as a jovian planet
• mass
• diameter
• distance from sun
• chemical constituents
• formation
• atmosphere
• inner layers
• rings
• moons

3
Saturn Statistics

• Distance from sun
• 1427 million km (9.54 AU)
• Orbital eccentricity and inclination
• 0.054 eccentricity
• 2.49 degrees inclination
• Orbital speed and period
• 9.65 km/s
• 29.42 years - sidereal period
• Mass
• 5.68 x 1026 kg (95.6 x Earth)
• Equatorial Diameter
• 60,268 km (9.45 x Earth)

4
More Saturn Statistics

• Mean density
• 0.687 g/cm3 (0.125 x Earth)
• Surface gravity
• 10.4 m/s2 (1.07 x Earth)
• Escape velocity
• 35.5 km/s
• Axial tilt
• 26.7 degrees
• Temperature at cloud top
• 97 K
• Number of Moons
• Define a moon

5
Where Are We?
6
Jovians and Terrestrials
A Family Portrait scaled to size, NOT distance
7
Source James Schombert, University of Oregon
8
Atmospheric Comparison
Source James Schombert, University of Oregon
9
Not a Perfect Sphere
Source James Schombert, University of Oregon
10
Source James Schombert, University of Oregon
11

• Atmospheric Appearance
• Fluid Mechanics
• viscous flow
• turbulent flow
• eddies
• cyclones

Source James Schombert, University of Oregon
12
Saturns Interior
Source James Schombert, University of Oregon
13
Saturns Magnetic Field

• Saturns Magnetic Field
• 8,000 times Earths
• 1/2 of Jupiters
• similar rotation
• therefore metallic hydrogen shell is smaller
• Saturns Magnetosphere
• smaller than Jupiters
• large ring system damps out charged particles

Source James Schombert, University of Oregon
14
Synchrotron Radiation
Source James Schombert, University of Oregon
15
Saturns Aurora
Source James Schombert, University of Oregon
16
Rings Rings Rings NOT REAL COLOR
Source James Schombert, University of Oregon
17
Rings around the Jovians
18
Ring Irregularities