One Saturn Deserves Another Trivia Quiz

Answer: 37,200 miles

It was mentioned in the introduction that Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system so the mean radius was always going to be a large number when compared to the Earth. The actual measurement, as provided by NASA, is 36,183.7 miles (58,232 kilometres), which is huge. To give you a better perspective, it is nine times larger than the Earth. That would be like comparing a nickel to a volleyball.

(Footnote) I used the term "mean radius" above, which is determined by obtaining the average distance from the physical centre of the planet through to the planet's surface at numerous locations (or samples).

Answer: Saturn's is almost perfectly aligned with its rotation

Like Earth, Saturn does have magnetic poles and they do run north and south, however, it is the Earth's poles that are slightly tilted, hence our creation of the "magnetic north" differentiation, and Saturn's that is almost aligned with its rotation.

Whilst Earth's magnetosphere is vast and it is the strongest of all of the rocky planets, it is dwarfed by the magnetosphere of Saturn, which is 578 times more powerful. All of Saturn's rings are encompassed within this sphere. In case you're wondering what the Earth's magnetosphere is, it a large magnetically influenced bubble around the Earth that stops our atmosphere being eroded by solar winds and also protects us from solar and cosmic particle radiation.

Answer: True

Saturn's surface is predominantly hydrogen and helium. The core of the planet is iron and nickel. Then, similar to the core of Jupiter, this is surrounded by a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen which, itself, is inside a layer of liquid hydrogen.

So, how dense is Saturn? The short answer is 0.687 grams per cubic centimetre. If you're anything like me, that didn't mean a lot to you. To give you a comparison, that means it is less dense than water. Add to that, Saturn is the only planet in our solar system that is less dense that water. Picture it, if you can... you build the universe's largest bathtub, fill it up with water and throw Saturn into it... and it would float.

Answer: More than 50

At last count Saturn had 53 confirmed moons but there are 29 others that have been marked as "provisional" pending their official confirmation and naming protocol. The moons range in size from being the size of a large sporting stadium through to, in the case of Titan, being larger than the planet Mercury.

Whilst all of them have their own story to tell, Titan is the most interesting one. It is the second largest moon, behind Jupiter's Ganymede, in our solar system, but it is the only one that we're aware of that has an atmosphere, made up of nitrogen and methane. As far as objects in our system go, it is the closest to being Earth-like that we know. A lot of this was confirmed with the landing of the Huygens probe, as part of the Cassini mission, in the late 1990s. Data retrieved from this provided evidence of rain, seasonal variations clouds and ice volcanoes.

Answer: 10

Essentially we're asking how long does it take Saturn to turn once on its axis and the answer is 10 hours and 42 minutes. That is quick. Basically, you'd enjoy a little bit more than two days on Saturn in comparison to Earth. In case you're wondering which planet is faster, it is Jupiter, which will turn once every 9 hours and 55 minutes.

While the Earth takes a year to orbit the sun, Saturn takes a tad longer, its orbit is roughly 29.4 Earth years in duration. The other interesting thing is that Saturn's axis has a similar tilt to that of the Earth, which means that it will experience seasons.

Answer: The temperature remains stable for significant periods

Saturn is a cool planet. With an average temperature of -285 degrees Fahrenheit it is definitely "way cool". Because of its distance from the sun, the majority of its heating comes from its own core (almost twice as much as that from the sun) and, as a result, the temperatures remain quite stable. There will be fluctuations as you move from its equator to the planet's poles but these differences are considered to be small. Yes, the planet does have seasons thanks to an axial tilt similar to Earth's. However, in comparison to Saturn, our temperatures will vary greatly between summer and winter because of our reliance on the sun for heat.

The atmosphere on Saturn is predominantly hydrogen with lesser amounts of helium and even lesser quantities of methane but these have minimal impact on temperature variations. Saturn has winds that reach 1,000 miles per hour and the planet does have storms. The best example is the Great White Spot, which will occur (approximately) every thirty years and is a result of cooling of water vapours in the atmosphere. This varies temperatures but, when extended over a Saturn year, this impact is minimal.

Answer: No

It is rather ironic that Saturn is named after the Roman god of agriculture, because the planet, which is basically a large ball of helium and hydrogen, is not conducive to life (as we know it). Other factors that would contribute to this are the pressures and temperatures on the planet, which are so extreme and volatile that it would be so difficult for organisms to adapt.

That being said, there may be hope for some of its moons. Both Titan and Enceladus possess internal oceans, so there is a chance that they may be able to support life.

Answer: Christian Huygens

Huygens was not the first to sight the rings of Saturn. That honour lay with Galileo Galilei who spotted them in 1610. Thing is, he had no idea what they were and, when he later wrote to the Duke of Tuscany, he informed him that the system was three planets that moved as one and almost touched one another. He called the smaller planets "Saturn's ears". Two years later, when the Earth passed through Saturn's ring plane Galileo, couldn't see the other "two planets" and declared that "Saturn has swallowed his children". He was totally thrown out the following year when the Earth moved out of the plane and he could see them again.

Some forty years later, in 1655, Christian Huygens and his brother Constantijn, were able to get a better look at the planet using a much stronger refracting telescope that Christian had designed. This led him to surmise that Saturn did have rings and that those rings were detached from the planet. He would publish his theory in his 1659 book "Systema Saturnium", which also included his discovery of Saturn's moon, Titan.

Answer: Gian Cassini

There are a lot of gaps in Saturn's rings though we would have struggled to have known this if it weren't for the space probes sent out into that region of space. Of the few that were observable/identifiable via telescopes the biggest gap was located between Saturn's Ring A and Ring B. This one is some 4,800 kilometres wide and has been named the Cassini Division. (Note: There is a Huygen's Gap at the inner edge of the Cassini Division but this is, at the most, only 400 kilometres wide.

So, why is this gap in there? First of all it is important to understand the make up of Saturn's rings. They are made up of a fairly complex series of ringlets which are, in turn, made up of countless bits of ice chunks. These chunks could be the size of dust particles to the size of a football oval. They have originated from pieces of debris from comets and shattered moons that have been broken up by Saturn's immensely powerful gravitational field, well before they could reach the planet. These particles are impacted upon by the gravitational pull of the nearby moons of Saturn. In the case of the Cassini Division, that moon is Mimas and it is Mimas that is responsible for pulling out any particles within that division, thus, leaving the gap.

The Italian born Cassini was an influential figure in the study of Saturn, though not all of his theories were on the mark. He discovered the gap between Rings A and B, identified that the rings were made, mainly, of frozen water and he felt that the rings may have been as old as the solar system, some 4.5 billion years old. The fly-bys of Voyager during the 1980s seemed to indicate that they could be as young as 100 million years old.

Answer: Cassini-Huygens mission

The Cassini-Huygens mission, commonly referred to as simply Cassini, was not the first mission to Saturn, but it was the first one to enter its orbit. It sat there from 2004 through until 2017 transmitting valuable data back to Earth. On board the Cassini was the Huygens probe which was landed on the moon Titan, making it the first human made object to land on a world in the outer solar system. As the NASA site records it, they were able to see "astounding worlds where methane rivers run to a methane sea and where jets of ice and gas are blasting material into space from a liquid water ocean that might harbor the ingredients for life".

By 2017 the fuel cells on the Cassini were depleted so it was given one final mission. On September 15, 2017, it was sent hurtling into Saturn's atmosphere, transmitting data back to Earth right until its very end.