2 years, 9 months ago
What are the similar patterns of Saturn and the solar system?
Saturn has nine orbiting moons
Saturn has three rings
The Solar system has nine planet
The Solar system has an asteroid belt
Saturn has three rings
The Solar system has nine planet
The Solar system has an asteroid belt
Separate topics with commas, or by pressing return. Use the delete or backspace key to edit or remove existing topics.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$2 Answers
The most notable similarity between Saturn and the Solar System is that both have several orbiting bodies around them. The Sun so far has 9 known orbiting planets and Saturn had at least 22 orbiting moons, with more being discovered every day. Seven os Saturn´s bodies are large enough to be spherical.
The largest of these moons is Titan, which is the second largest in the Solar system. Here lies other similarity, Titan is the only moon around a planet that has its own atmosphere, somewhat similar as the Earth which is the only planet with atmosphere that orbits our Solar system.
Plus, the atmosphere of Titan probably formed the same way as the atmospheres of the terrestrial planets.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
There are as many differences between Saturn and the solar system as a whole as there are similarities. Both Saturn and the sun are orbited by a number of objects moving in (mostly) counterclockwise orbits, a remnant from the rotation of the primordial gas and dust cloud which eventually formed the solar system. Some of these objects have atmospheres, and some are relatively small objects concentrated in specific orbital zones. Saturn is even a net emitter of energy like the sun; due to its internal heat, it radiates more energy than it receives from the sun.
However, the differences include:
--Objects in the solar system show a distinct gradation in composition depending on how far from the sun they formed, with rocky and/or metallic objects close to the sun and increasing amounts of ices and frozen gases at greater distances. Objects orbiting Saturn show no such gradation, since they either formed at Saturn's distance from the sun or were subsequently captured, and their composition has nothing to do with their relative orbital distances from Saturn.
--The bulk of Saturn's rings are inside the planet's Roche limit; that is, an object of any great size would be torn apart by tidal forces. In fact, this is one theory of how Saturn's rings formed; another is that they represent leftover material from Saturn's formation that was too close to the planet to form a moon in the first place. On the other hand, the asteroid belt is beyond the sun's Roche limit, and there is no reason why a full-sized planet could not orbit the sun at those distances.
There are other differences between Saturn's rings and the asteroid belt. Saturn's rings are mostly water ice, again indicative of the planet's distance from the sun, while asteroids are mostly made of the rock and metal found closer to the sun. Because the asteroid belt is beyond the sun's Roche limit, asteroids can range up to hundreds of kilometers in diameter, while the particles in Saturn's rings range in size from dust to small boulders. Additionally, Saturn's rings are only a few meters thick, with all of the particles orbiting in the exact same plane. Asteroids, however, have a range of orbital inclinations, and the asteroid belt more closely resembles a fuzzy donut than a ring.
However, the differences include:
--Objects in the solar system show a distinct gradation in composition depending on how far from the sun they formed, with rocky and/or metallic objects close to the sun and increasing amounts of ices and frozen gases at greater distances. Objects orbiting Saturn show no such gradation, since they either formed at Saturn's distance from the sun or were subsequently captured, and their composition has nothing to do with their relative orbital distances from Saturn.
--The bulk of Saturn's rings are inside the planet's Roche limit; that is, an object of any great size would be torn apart by tidal forces. In fact, this is one theory of how Saturn's rings formed; another is that they represent leftover material from Saturn's formation that was too close to the planet to form a moon in the first place. On the other hand, the asteroid belt is beyond the sun's Roche limit, and there is no reason why a full-sized planet could not orbit the sun at those distances.
There are other differences between Saturn's rings and the asteroid belt. Saturn's rings are mostly water ice, again indicative of the planet's distance from the sun, while asteroids are mostly made of the rock and metal found closer to the sun. Because the asteroid belt is beyond the sun's Roche limit, asteroids can range up to hundreds of kilometers in diameter, while the particles in Saturn's rings range in size from dust to small boulders. Additionally, Saturn's rings are only a few meters thick, with all of the particles orbiting in the exact same plane. Asteroids, however, have a range of orbital inclinations, and the asteroid belt more closely resembles a fuzzy donut than a ring.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Lastly, there is another minor similarity between Saturn rings and the Solar system asteroid belt.
Saturn´s 3 rings which can be viewed with the eye are in fact thousands of packed rings orbiting around the planet (12 can be viewed by telescope). The rings are in fact particles composed primarily of water ice and range from microns to meters in size. They have been given letter names in the order of their discovery. The main rings are, working outward from the planet, known as C, B, and A. Newer fainter rings like the D, E, F and G have been discovered recently, with F being the outer most ring. In between there are division gaps, like the Cassini and the Encke Divisions.
The Solar system in the other side has a main group of stellar debris named the Asteroid Belt, also called Main Belt. It is located between Mars and Jupiter and has a very long chain of asteroids with planetary orbits. In all, it has more than 40.000 asteroids, some of them half a mile long. The belt contains four large objects: Ceres, 4 Vesta, 2 Pallas and 10 Hygiea with more than 400 kilometers each. The remaining bodies range down to the size of a dust particle.