Essay on saturns f ring
However, superimposed on this is variability due to the eccentricity of the planet's orbit that causes the planet to display brighter oppositions in the northern hemisphere than it does in the southern.
Show Answer. Another possibility is that the rings were once large moons that spiraled into the planet.
How wide are saturns rings
The Cassini's division divides the A and B bands. What would Saturn be without its beautiful system of rings? Sunlight hits the rings edge-on, and the fine line of the rings is difficult to detect. The east-west extent of this storm is equal to the diameter of the Earth about 12, kilometers or 7, miles. Saturn is the least dense of the planets; its specific gravity 0. We call such a passage of one astronomical object in front of another an occultation. Only one Titan is large; the rest are small bodies. Best of all, dozens of cryovolcanic vents on the tiger stripes were seen to be erupting geysers of salty water and ice Figure 5. Saturn also exhibits long-lived ovals red spot at center of image at right and other features common on Jupiter.The most substantial of these, which lies just outside the A Ring, is called the F Ring; its surprising appearance is discussed below. The rings show a tremendous amount of structure on all scales, some related to perturbations by Saturn's moons, but much unexplained.
More detailed and customized charts can be created with a planetarium program.
Formation theories Several hypotheses exist as to the how Saturn's rings were formed. It is at a distance of 66, — 74, km and has a width of 7, km. While astronomers do not understand the composition of this material in detail, it seems to consist in large part of carbon and hydrocarbon compounds.
It is between—km giving it a width ofkm. Though it is not nearly as bright as Jupiter, it is easy to identify as a planet because it doesn't "twinkle" like the stars do. The D ring is closest to the planet. The gap between the A and B rings is known as the Cassini division.
Image scale is about 4 miles 6 kilometers per pixel.