Want to Gain Weight – Easy! Go to Saturn

Some New Photographs and Interesting Facts About Saturn from NASA

May 4, 2009

NASA has recently released some amazing photographs of Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun. Read the latest Saturn-related facts here.

It is an interesting, but little-known fact, that the quickest way to lose or gain weight would be to have oneself translocated to another part of the solar system. For example, a person beamed up to the moon would experience significant weight loss. However if a person was translocated onto Saturn, he would instantly gain several pounds.

Gaining Weight the Saturn Way

The density of Saturn is approximately one-tenth of that of the Earth. If a sufficiently large pond of water could be found, Saturn would be able to float on it.

Although Saturn has a low density, it has a greater mass than any other planet except Jupiter. Saturn is about 95 times as massive as Earth. Because of this, the force of gravity is a little higher on Saturn than on Earth and an object weighing 100 lb on Earth would weigh about 107 lb on Saturn.

Cassini Images of Saturn's Ring Shadows

Narcissism apart, there is a lot more that can be learned about Saturn thanks to the latest images received by NASA from Cassini's wide-angle cameras. The image that accompanies this article was beamed back to Earth on December 30th, 2008 and was taken at a distance of approximately 750,000 miles from Saturn. It is a composite of 6 views, two each of red, green and blue "spectral filters" which create a natural color view. To understand the size of Saturn (from this photograph), one has to visualize that each image pixel actually represents 42 miles.

Shadow of Saturn's Rings

The dark lines on the photograph are shadows of Saturn's rings, which consist of particles (from dust to boulder size) of ice and rock. The ring-shadows shown in this photograph seem to divide the cooler-looking northern hemisphere from the warm yellows and pastel orange of the southern hemisphere. This banded appearance seems (according to NASA) to be caused by differences in the temperature and altitude of atmospheric gas masses.

Saturn, A Gas Giant Planet

Most scientists believe Saturn is a giant ball of gas. However, the planet seems to have a hot solid inner core of iron and rocky material. Around this dense core is an outer layer that probably consists of ammonia, methane, and water. Around this there may be a layer of highly compressed, liquid metallic hydrogen. Above this layer lies a region composed of hydrogen and helium in a viscous (syrup-like) form. Towards the visible surface of the planet it is believed that the hydrogen and helium become gaseous and merge with its atmosphere.

Could There be Life on Saturn?

The plants and animals that live on Earth could not live on Saturn and scientists doubt that any form of life exists on the planet. It is an extremely hostile environment both chemically and temperature-wise and it is believed that the winds on Saturn can approach 1,800 km per hour. Saturn's magnetic field is believed to be 1000 times that on earth, which would also be harmful to life.

Although the surface temperature is believed to be -285 degrees F, inside the clouds the temperatures are considerably higher and the planet radiates much more heat than it receives from the sun, indicating some exothermic processes, as yet unknown.

Saturn Vital Statistics

Saturn is wider at the equator than pole to pole giving it a flattened appearance. Its equatorial diameter is 74,900 miles (120,540 km) which is almost ten times the Earth's diameter. Its elliptical transit around the sun takes over 29 years to complete. It has seven rings, the last of which was discovered by the Voyager probes which were launched in 1977 by NASA.

More Saturnalian Trivia

Saturn has given us the word Saturday, the day in the Roman week that was devoted to the worship of the god Saturn.

From this we also get the word "saturnalia" which has become synonymous with celebrations, parties and overindulgence of all sorts. On 17th December, 217 BCE the Roman festival of Saturnalia was instituted in order to raise the morale of the Romans, following a military defeat. The festival involved a lot of eating, drinking, gambling and general debauchery that lasted for a full week.

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The copyright of the article Want to Gain Weight – Easy! Go to Saturn in Solar System Astronomy is owned by Christine Fadhley. Permission to republish Want to Gain Weight – Easy! Go to Saturn in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.