|
Buying a Telescope
See Also:
Binoculars 10*25 Telescope for Hiking/Camping/Tour/Venture - Black
Digital Astrophotography
The Planet Saturn
The planet Saturn resembles the planet Jupiter in many ways. Saturn is also a planet that has very little if any solid matter. It is believed that there is a hard rocky core, but that belief is unproven (albeit very probable) theory. Saturn, like Jupiter, is made up of gases and liquids. There is an internal heat source. We know this because Saturn radiates more energy than it receives.
Saturn rotates fast. It makes one complete revolution once every 10 or 11 hours. Saturn rotates around the sun once every 29.5 years. Because it rotates so fast, Saturn is flattened at the poles, making it an almost oblate planet.
The space probes, Pioneer 11, Mariner 11 and 12, and Voyager I and II, provide the best and most accurate information to astronomers about the planet Saturn, even though the Hubble space telescope takes very good images of Saturn. The space probes get "up close and personal," so to speak, and have provided information about Saturn that nothing else could have provided.
Wind velocity on Saturn is extreme. Wind speeds of more than 1,118 mph have been recorded. Unlike the winds on Jupiter, however, wind speeds on Saturn do not seem to be closely related to the positions of the belts and bands.
The rings around Saturn are one of the most interesting features. Really high-resolution pictures taken on the Voyager missions tell us that the rings are actually made up of hundreds of thousands of very small rings. The evidence suggests that the rings are composed of particles that are mostly ice crystals. A lot has been learned about the rings of Saturn over the last 20 or so years, but there is so much about them that is still a mystery. |
|
More articles:
Solar System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mirrors & Lenses
Deep sky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Space Future
Neptune
The Planet Jupiter
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus first became fascinated with astronomy in 1492 when he enrolled in Kraków Academy (now Jagiellonian University). His professor, Albert Brudzewski, is credited with introducing young Nicolaus to astronomy.
After four years at Kraków Academy, Nicolaus Copernicus's uncle (who paid for his education in hopes that Nicolaus would become a bishop) sent him to Bologna to study civil law. It was there that Nicolaus met Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara, who was a famous astronomer of the time.
Copernicus gave some friends his Commentariolus (Little Commentary) in 1514. Commentariolus was a short handwritten work that described
his ideas about the heliocentric (sun-centered universe) hypothesis. It was the basis for his later work.
Copernicus feared ridicule from other scientists. He wasn't afraid of what the Church would think of his theories. This fear of ridicule caused him to delay publication of his findings for several years. As a matter of fact, his book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) wasn't published until the year of his death in 1543.
It is said that Copernicus was in a coma that had been caused by a stroke when a friend put a copy of his book into his hands. Copernicus awakened from his coma and died peacefully shortly there after.
There are six major parts to the Copernican theory:
1. Motions of the planets are uniform.
2. The sun is the center of the universe.
3. The order of planets around the sun is Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the fixed stars.
4. Retrograde motion of the planets can be explained by the Earth's motion.
5. Daily rotation, annual revolution, and annual tilting of its axis are the three motions of the earth.
6. Comparatively speaking, the distance between the earth and the sun is small to that of the earth to the stars.
Related Topics: The Planet Neptune,
Guide to Buying a Telescope, Astronomy Clubs
|