Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/281

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Saturn — A Magnificent Ringed World

��CRAPE RING 10,808 MILES BROAD

��INNER BRIOHT RING 19.169 MILES BROAO

��OUTER BRIGHT RtNG il,054 MILES BROAD I

���COMPARATIVE SIZE OF THE EARTH

���From a drawing by Scrivt^r. Bulum in the illustrated London News with additions by Popular Scienxe Monthly

��Here we have the most wonderful creation of the visible universe— Saturn and his rings of flying myriads of small particles, attended by his eight largest satellites. Saturn is nine times greater in diameter than the earth. Through a telescope we discern simply a vaporous atmosphere, tor- mented by an intensely heated core forever hidden from our gaze. Cloud vapor is incessantly shot vertically into the upper atmosphere layers by internal convulsions. The rings are com- posed of nothing more than a flight of myriads of small particles around their primary, the inner ones revolving in five hours. Each particle, therefore, is a tiny moon

�� �