LORD OF THE RINGS


NASA images: Desktop wallpaper from outer space - TechRepublic

Saturn is perhaps the most beautiful of the planets of the Solar System. It has fascinated astronomers because of the mysterious rings. The Pioneer, Voyager and Cassini-Huygens space-probes sent back a great deal of information on the nature of the rings and the mass of Saturn itself.
       Each ring is made up of a stream of icy particles, following each other nose-to-tail around the planet. The particles an be of widely varying sizes. The rings resemble a snowstorm are mixed with snowballs up to the size of house. The ice that surrounds one of the most spectacular planets of our solar system is made off water - the same substance (with the same formula) that covers so much of the Earth's surface.
       The planet of Saturn is made of gases, mainly hydrogen and helium. Deep in the centre of these lightweight gases is a small rocky core, surrounded by a liquid layer of the gases. The hydrogen is liquid because of the high pressure in the inner regions of the planet nearest the core. The liquid hydrogen behaves with metallic properties. Study of Saturn's physical structure emphasises how substances that we know on Earth can exist in unusual physical states in different environments. 
        

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