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Core Composition of Saturn

Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system. The Italian scientist Galileo was the first person to look at Saturn through a telescope and see what looked like two handles on either side. Later the Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens, using a more accurate telescope, discovered that these handles were actually rings, and to this day Saturn is known for its spectacular system of rings.

Gas Giant
- Saturn is a gas giant whose composition is very much like that of Jupiter, the largest planet. Besides its rings, Saturn also has 31 known moons, with more waiting to be discovered. Though it has over 9.5 times the mass of earth, Saturn is less dense than water. If an ocean or bathtub large enough could be found, Saturn would float in it. Nearly 80 percent of Saturn's mass is hydrogen, with most of the rest of the mass taken up by helium. The major component of Saturn is iron at 0.2 percent, silicates are 0.2 percent and oxygen at 1 percent. The rest are the noble gas neon at 0.2 percent, nitrogen at 0.1 percent, carbon at 0.4 percent and trace elements.
Facts and Figures
- Saturn has a diameter of 74,901 miles. Its distance from the sun is 934,340,050 miles at its most distant, or aphelion and 835,140,000 miles at its closest, or perihelion. The planet has a mass of 2.5836 x 10 (26) lbs. A Saturnian day is 10.25 earth hours, but it takes 29.46 Earth years for it to make a revolution around the sun. It tilts on its axis at a 28-degree angle. The mean temperature is minus 284.8 degrees Fahrenheit and the maximum temperature is minus 207.4 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Central Core
- The central core of Saturn is probably a solid core of iron and silicates that measures 9,300 miles in diameter, with a cover of slushy water, methane and ammonia ice kept solid not by cold -- the temperature is 18,000 to 27,000 degrees Fahrenheit at such depths -- but by the sheer pressure of layers of liquid molecular hydrogen and metallic hydrogen. This is hydrogen that is under so much pressure that it's become a metal. The layer of liquid hydrogen begins 37,000 miles down through the planet's atmosphere at a temperature of minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit. The liquid metallic hydrogen begins 18,500 miles down, followed by the ice and then solid rock.
Winds
- Winds in the upper atmosphere of Saturn can blow at 1,600 feet per second around the equator. Hurricane winds on Earth rarely reach 360 feet per second. These winds and the heat that come from Saturn's interior cause the bands of yellow and gold in the gaseous atmosphere.

Astronomy