Saturn is the sixth location of the Sun and the second largest (after Jupiter) planet of the solar system.His otherwise also called a gas giant, and his name was given in honor of the Roman god of agriculture.
Asked how many satellites of Saturn, it is difficult to give an exact answer.Until 1997, astronomers knew only 18 of them.Nowadays with the advent of powerful new telescopes managed to count them much more.The natural satellites of Saturn represented a decent amount (62 pieces - with confirmed orbits).53 of them have their own names.Most of them are composed of ice, rock and has small size.This explains their main feature - a high ability to reflect sunlight.In larger satellites formed rocky core.Most of them (except for Phoebe and Hyperion) constantly turned to the planet only on one side.
Saturn's moons are regular and irregular.The first account for 24 pieces, and the second - 38. The movement takes place almost regular satellites in circular orbits in the vicinity of the equatorial plane of the planet.They rotate only in the direction of rotation of Saturn.This indicates that regular satellites of Saturn formed in the gas and dust cloud that surrounded the planet during its inception.
to irregular representatives are planets, the movement which is different from the general rules.They may be more elongated orbit and the eccentricity of the movement in the opposite direction of its orbit and a greater inclination to the equatorial plane.Irregular moons of Saturn in their orbits characteristics are classified into 3 groups:
- Gali;
- Inuit;
- and Norwegian.
They rotate chaotic orbits in the far distance from the planet.This indicates that Saturn has recently captured the body of the fly past a comet nucleus and asteroids.
Saturn's largest moon - Titan.In our solar system, he alone has a dense atmosphere, and largest, he takes pride 2nd place.You can see through the telescope as it is smaller than the Earth is only half.This is a very interesting celestial body that scientists were able to study the already good enough.It was found that Saturn's moon Titan has a composition very similar to the alleged composition of the Earth, which it had in the early inception.Scientists are of the opinion that in its atmosphere as there are processes that are billions of years ago was characteristic of our planet.
Because of the opaque gas shell having a thickness of about 300 km, he was virtually inaccessible to astronomers seeking to measure its diameter.Only with the advent of the latest advances in telescope technology studies have shown that the depths of Titan may be composed of equal parts of water and frozen solid rock.Generally it is formed from an atmosphere of nitrogen, which makes it similar to the Earth.
pre-existing hypothesis is still not bereft of the existence of this satellite, rivers, lakes and oceans, formed from methane or ethane.The methane can exist in three phases and maintain semblance of the greenhouse effect, which is observed on this satellite.
At Titan there is no magnetic field, which means that it has no core, conductive.The surface temperature is estimated at 95 Kelvin and the pressure is higher than the earth in half.The low temperature does not form a complex organic substances.However, it has its magnetic tail, formed by interaction with Saturn's magnetic field, the magnetosphere in which Titan is a source of charged and neutral hydrogen atoms.
When considering how many satellites of Saturn, probably the most faithful is the biggest consideration.One is Mimosa, which has a huge crater called Herschel, which is a diameter of about 130 km.This is more than the size of many of Saturn's moons.Dione, Tethys, Enceladus and Rhea - they all belong to the major sites and has deep craters and canyons, and Enceladus is still the brightest celestial body of the solar system.
