Page:Amazing Stories Volume 17 Number 06.djvu/209

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AMAZING STORIES
209

ABOUT SATURN

SATURN, the planet which baffled the ancient thinkers, is now pretty well diagnosed. That is, its features, peculiarities, and so forth have, through years of astronomical work, become known to man. It was Galileo, back in the 17th century, who originally began an earnest and successful observation of this planet. However, working with crude instruments, he was unable to obtain an accurate picture of Saturn and its rings: he thought that the planet consisted of one large spherical mass with two small Spherical masses on each side. Even though this conclusion was not very accurate, it was a great step forward. Then Huygens, about fifty years later, working with more elaborate instruments, was able to demonstrate the definite shape of the rings surrounding Saturn. These two men started the investigation and astronomers since then have definitely shown the exact shape and approximate size of the rings.

One of the peculiarities of these rings is their somewhat extreme thinness. That u, the outer ring has a diameter of 170,000 miles, whereas, its thickness is less than 10 miles. This set up is equivalent to having a circular board twenty feet in diameter and with a thickness of barely .001 feet.

The diameter of Saturn through the equator is 74,000 miles, whereas its diameter through the poles is 66,300 miles. These calculations show that Saturn is shaped somewhat like the earth, but, of course, it is much larger. However, Saturn has a very low density, only .715 times that of water. Therefore, its material composition is rather interesting. One noted astronomer believes that the inner core of rock and iron of 28,000 miles diameter is surrounded by ice 6,000 miles thick, and then there is a thick atmosphere 16,000 miles deep. This atmosphere consists of gases near the top and the remainder is liquid.

Saturn travels about the sun once every 29.5 years. This long period of time is due to the fact that it is about 887 million miles from the sun. This distance varies at several points in the orbit. Its own period of rotation about its axis is approximately ten and one-half hours. This value is not exact, however, because of the obstacles incurred in measuring the rotation.


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