WEBVTT - How Saturn Works 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:07.680 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:14.440 Hey, and welcome to this podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.280 Chuck and Jerry's here too. Did I flub that line? 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:17.640 Yes? 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:19.159 Am I going to retake it? No? 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.280 I am not welcome to the pod broadcast. 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:26.840 This is stuff you should know, by the way, the 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:27.880 Far out edition. 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:33.159 That's right, it's in stuff out there in space. 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:37.360 Yeah, and not just stuff in general. We're actually gonna 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:40.400 zero in on one specific piece of stuff that's out 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:42.879 there in space, a little planet called Saturn. 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:46.800 That's right. The ring to beauty. That's they'd like to 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:48.920 say in the biz it is. 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:52.400 Yet that's what the astrophysicists I'll call it. Uh huh 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.000 uh yeah. Or Saturn does have rings. It's not the 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:58.840 only planet with rings, as we'll see, or we can 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.920 see now. I think Jupiter and Uranus and is it 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:05.040 Mercury also that has rings, but they're just they don't 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:06.800 hold the candle the Saturn's rings. 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:08.960 Hey, get the candle away from Minis. 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:16.119 Saturn's also a really ancient planet in that, as far 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.640 as human experience goes, is for as long as we've 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.680 been looking up in the night sky, we've seen Saturn 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:26.240 because it is the sixth planet from the Sun. It's 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:29.640 also the furthest planet away that you can see with 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.000 the naked eye here on planet Earth. 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:36.120 You want to know something funny before we go any further. Yeah, always, 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:41.759 before we recorded, Emily was asking, as she sometimes does, 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:45.200 what we're recording, and I told her the two episodes 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:48.160 and she asked about Saturn and I was like, not 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:50.280 very interesting to me, and she said, so, what are 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:52.480 you gonna what do you do in those episodes? Just 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.400 like to commentary and make jokes. I went, well, there's 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.200 probably not gonna be a lot of jokes, and she said, well, 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:01.400 as long as you can make one about your and 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:03.440 I said, I don't think i'll be able to because 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.280 it's about Saturn and lo and behold a minute and 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:06.800 twenty end. 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:10.200 Yeah. Wow, Now you have two more times to bring 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:12.880 it back and then you'll have completed the comedy try. 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.679 I think that's a wonner, as they say, But I'm 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:19.240 just excited to report back to Emily that that happened 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:21.560 unexpectedly and delight delightedly. 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:23.920 Well, way to go, Chuck, I thought you said it 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:26.040 was going to be funny though, huh. 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:27.760 Hey you laughed? Was that bitty? 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:30.960 Let's just move on all right? 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:31.200 Great? 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:34.840 So oh yeah, Like I said, people have known about 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:36.959 Saturn for a very very long time, and in fact, 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:40.680 I think twenty five hundred years ago the first people 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:46.280 to document it were the Sumerians, and not too long 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:50.160 after that or around that time, in India the world's 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:56.919 oldest astronomy book, the Suriya Siddanta. Obviously whoever wrote it 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.520 was like, I'm going to try to guess the diameter 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.280 of Saturn, and I don't think they guessed at it, 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:05.519 like you know how many jelly beans are in this jar? 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:10.200 Kind of guess like they used math and geometry and 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.119 all sorts of great stuff. Sure, but this is long 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.720 before they should have. So what makes it impressive is 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:18.799 that they were only off by one thousand miles. So 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:23.840 today we believe that the diameter of Saturn is about 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:26.640 seventy four thousand, five hundred and eighty miles. In the 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:31.160 Suria Sedanta they guessed seventy three thousand are estimated seventy 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.559 three thousand, five hundred and eighty. That, my friend, is remarkable. 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:40.840 Yeah, the regular Lewis and or Clark kind of weren't 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:43.360 they famous for like almost guessing the distance. 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:47.920 Oh yes, yeah, great, great analogy. Sorry it was lost 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:48.400 on me. Yeah. 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:54.320 First, so the name itself, Saturn is named after Saturnus, 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.720 which is the god of agriculture and harvest. So it 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:03.000 came from the Romans. And you know, Saturn goes pretty 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:07.480 slowly across the sky. So the day Saturday is named 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.680 for Saturn, which is the last day of the week. Yeah, 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:13.680 and now we're going to compare Saturn to Earth in 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:18.080 a lot of scintillating ways. And we could start with 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.760 just the massive size, because it makes Earth look like 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.320 just a pee and a pocket. Basically, it makes. 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.800 It look like a nickel if Saturn was a volleyball. 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:33.480 NASA loves that one. If you ever look up Saturn, 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:37.360 NASA uses that every chance they get. 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:40.279 I wonder if when they got they got the nickel part. 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:42.480 And they were like, all right, well, we got to 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:47.160 find something laying around here that's as big as this distance. 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:49.880 And some guy was like, you know, there was one 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:53.599 sporty guy in the corner like practicing setting a volleyball spike. 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:57.400 He said, what about Jim over there is that. 0:04:57.520 --> 0:04:59.839 Low hanging fruit Phil who is about. 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:03.920 To do that oh Man pork bill. But you know, 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:07.400 you're right, nickel compared to a volleyball is pretty good. 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:11.679 But let's talk equator. The equator's close to ten times 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:16.599 larger than Earth at two hundred and twenty seven miles around, 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:20.360 compared to Earth badly little twenty five thousand miles. 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:23.599 Yeah, it's got an extra spare tire compared to Earth's, 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:27.320 you know, totally. One of the things about Saturn though, 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:30.960 if you were, if you aren't like an astronomy type, 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:34.800 the kind of planet that Saturn is is a gas giant, 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:39.799 which means that it's made largely of gas or gases. 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:42.240 So to be a gas giant, you don't have to 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:44.839 just be a big ball of gas, but you're made 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:48.400 of things that typically are considered gases on the periodic table. 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.680 Let's just get that straight right out of the gate. Okay, right, 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:54.800 But if you put the whole thing together, Saturn doesn't 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:57.880 have a surface to speak of. If you can go 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:01.640 far enough in toward the center, you might eventually hit 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:03.960 something you could stand on, but you would be under 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:06.599 so much heat and pressure that you wouldn't be thinking 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:09.640 about standing on the surface anymore. You'd have other problems. 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:15.680 Yeah, it's a very not dense planet, and some say 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:19.200 could even float in water if there was water that large. 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:23.680 A pool, yeah, or I don't know. A pond. 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:28.320 Sure, isn't that what they call lakes up in the Northeast. 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:31.600 You know, I don't know the difference between a pond. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:33.840 And a lake in Maine. There is no difference. 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:37.440 I would think a pond is human made, but there 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.120 are many human made lakes too, so I don't know. 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:41.120 I'll have to look that up. 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:44.520 I always assumed it was size like pond is smaller, 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:49.640 lake is larger. Well that's what That's how you remember 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.560 lake l large. 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:58.000 Large l and pond puny nice one. I mean that 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:00.479 seems obvious, but surely there's something else, but maybe not. 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:03.080 We'll look into that. More to come on, ponds and links. 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:04.840 Okay, I'll keep talking while you look at it. 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:09.120 Well, I was going to talk, So why don't you 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.200 look it up. Earth is the third planet out as 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:14.960 modest mouse will tell you. They're about ninety two million 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:18.080 miles away, or we are rather. Saturn is the sixth 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:21.400 planet away from the Sun, and things really pick up 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:23.480 after you after you get away from Earth about eight 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.920 hundred and eighty six million miles, which is going to 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.640 mean they're gonna be a very cold planet because they 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:33.360 get not nearly as much sun They get about one 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:36.200 point two percent of the sunlight that we get, which 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:39.080 means the average temperature in the upper atmosphere of Saturn 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:43.400 is a very chilly negative two hundred and twenty degree fahrenheit. 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:46.480 Or negative one hundred and forty celsius for our non 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:50.920 American liberian or can't remember the third one friends, that's right. 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:55.520 So there's some other interesting things that happen because it 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:58.360 gets such little sunlight. But one of the things that 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:02.680 astronomers were surprised by at first was Saturn's atmosphere that 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.600 is very cold, but it's not nearly as cold as 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.400 you would expect for how far away from the sun 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:11.000 it is and how little sunlight it gets. And they 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.600 finally figured out the reason why is because Saturn generates 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:16.880 its own internal heat. That's why it's not as cold 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:20.760 as it as it should be. That'sn't me yeah, exactly, 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:23.600 you could never be cold if you tried. 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.920 Man, I've been cold, but and when I get cold, 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:28.600 I have a very hard time warming up. 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:33.280 I meant, in like the figurative sense, you know, like. 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:35.640 Like a cold emotional individual. Yes, yes, oh well. 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:38.360 Thank you. So there's a couple other things about being 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:40.840 that far away from the Sun. I think it takes 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.640 eighty minutes for sunlight to get there. That's a long 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.160 time to stand around and wait for sunlight. We only 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:48.040 have to wait like eight minutes here on Earth. 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:50.600 Yeah, So when they flick that switch on, you just 0:08:50.600 --> 0:08:52.920 got it. You got a huddle, hunker down, right. 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:57.360 And then so in its orbit around the Sun, it 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:02.120 takes almost thirty earth years for Saturn to complete a year. 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:06.640 Yeah, because you know, they're rotating very very quickly on 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:11.680 its axis, second fastest in the Solar system, second just 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.800 behind Jupiter. But if you're talking rotation speed here on Earth, 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.040 we're going at about nine hundred and seventy eight miles 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:24.440 an hour. Saturn is twenty three thousand miles an hour. 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:30.439 Yeah, almost, no more than twenty three times faster than he. 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.320 And that's going to give it a short day, about 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:36.280 a ten point seven hour day. 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.240 Yes, And here on Earth, for comparison, a day is 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:41.840 more than twenty hours long. 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:44.079 That's right. 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:47.920 So I said earlier, Chuck, that Saturn's a gas giant 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.040 and the two gases that it's most fond of our 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:56.360 hydrogen and helium, and overall, the I think the composition 0:09:56.520 --> 0:10:00.760 of its atmosphere is about three quarters hydrogen one helium, 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:05.120 but in the planet itself it has far less hydrogen 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.080 than helium. That's about all you really need to know 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:12.640 about those two for now. But the point of the 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:15.240 whole thing is that there is an atmosphere. There are 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.559 different layers, and the atmosphere itself is about thirty seven 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:23.120 miles thick, and it is just generally gas, but it's 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:26.760 also super freaky, as we'll see. But if we zoom 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:29.600 in a little further, drop down a little further into Saturn, 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.800 into its center, and we make it through the thirty 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.400 seven mile thick atmosphere, we're suddenly going to find out 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:41.080 that the pressure is extraordinarily great in the next layer, 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:43.199 which is a layer of liquid hydrogen. 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:47.240 Yeah, and it's liquid hydrogen because of that pressure. It's 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:51.120 the It's just such a massive planet that here on Earth, 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:53.400 if we want to make liquid hydrogen, you have to 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:57.200 cool that gas down to very very low temperatures like 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.480 negative four hundred and twenty three degrees fahrenheit. But it's 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:05.400 just the pressure on Saturn. Even though those are high temperatures, 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:09.520 that pressure alone can make that gas a liquid, which 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:10.880 is incredible. 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.800 It really is. And then it gets even crazier because 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:16.720 so further in towards the core, toward the center of 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:21.160 the planet, that liquid hydrogen turns into a completely different 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:24.600 kind of thing that they call liquid metallic hydrogen. It's 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:27.840 still again on the periodic table, the gas even though 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.920 it's in liquid form, but it behaves like a metal 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:35.000 and that it can conduct electricity. So imagine hydrogen gas 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:39.040 conducting electricity. And once you put your head back together, 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.400 because it got blown so wide open from that, you 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:47.959 will understand now how heat is generated inside Saturn. It's 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:52.000 from that liquid metallic hydrogen just acting like it ain't 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:55.880 supposed to. The reason why is because it's so compressed 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.800 from the pressure toward the center that everything, even the 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:03.560 electrons you remember like electrons are they are to like 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:06.600 a nucleus of an atom. What you know. I think 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:09.720 the outer planets in our Solar system is to the Sun, 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:13.920 they're really far away from it. This pressure is so 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:18.079 great in saturn center that their electrons are touching. It's 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:20.840 all mushed together. And that's why it's behaving weirdly, because 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:24.400 the electrons can conduct electricity a lot more easily. 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:27.360 And then if you want to go further down to 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.880 the core, you talk about hot. We don't know for 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.400 sure because you can't get in there. They've tried, they've tried, 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.319 But the current belief right now is that it's basically 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:44.160 compressed molten iron into a ball about the size of 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:47.880 fifty five earth and a temperature of about fifteen thousand 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:49.360 degrees fahrenheit. 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:51.160 Which is hotter than the surface of the Sun. 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:53.240 Hot hot stuff in there. 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:55.439 But if we're going to compare core to core, the 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:59.120 core of the Sun is twenty seven million degrees fahrenheight. 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:04.000 Note I saw one other thing about the core of Saturn, 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:09.040 and then maybe we'll take a break. Apparently some researchers 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:13.280 have concluded that it's actually slushy, so it's not solid, 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:15.719 which makes sense. I mean, you'd think it'd be kind 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:20.280 of moltener in some weird state, but that it's also 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:25.280 made of in addition to iron, ice, rock and gas, 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:28.439 and how there could possibly be ice in the core 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.880 that's fifteen thousand degrees fahrenheit is totally beyond me. I 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.440 couldn't see a good explanation of this whatsoever. It's possible 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:40.440 that the researchers who've proposed this completely off their rockers. 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:42.920 I don't know, but I thought it was worth mentioning 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.480 because I think that's fantastic if it is true. And 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:48.960 hopefully there's the stuff you should know listener who is 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:51.360 out there as like grave and I'm going to email 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:54.000 in and explain to Josh and Chuck how there could 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:55.280 possibly be ice there. 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:56.400 That would be great. 0:13:56.480 --> 0:14:01.520 Yep, Okay, you want to take that huge four promised break. 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.360 Yeah, let's do it and we'll be back on I 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:06.360 don't know. Let's talk about like how Saturn was sworn 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:35.520 to begin with, right after this. All right, So there 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:39.520 are a couple of theories about how Saturn was formed. 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:43.760 If you're a if you're a regular human walking around 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.000 planet Earth, you might hear both of these and say 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:49.760 sounds like like you're kind of talking about basically the 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:50.200 same thing. 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:50.800 Yeah. 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:54.440 If you're an astrophysicist, you might glavin out as you 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:58.760 mentioned before, that's two Glavin's and say, oh no, no, no, 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:03.160 it is a very very polarizing question in astrophysics, and 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:08.360 to us this different is very large. So yeah, so 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:11.360 if you're an astrophysicist out there, this might really excite you. 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.760 If you're not, would I would dare you. I would 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:19.680 urge you to try and be delighted in the minutia 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:22.920 of the difference of science and how important that can be. 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:27.320 The question about how Saturn or gas giants like Saturn 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:32.160 form is more polarizing than the proposal to rename Uranus. Right, 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:35.640 if we work together, that's two. 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:36.480 That's two. 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:39.800 So I'm going to explain the difference because I find 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:43.480 this fascinating. There's the main generally accepted model of how 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:47.800 planets form, including gas giants like Saturn, is called the 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:51.040 core accretion model, and that is basically, when a star forms, 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:53.880 like our Sun, it forms out of dust and gas 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.680 and all sorts of crazy stuff, and there's a lot 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:01.240 of other debris that starts swirling around it, forming a disc, 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.520 and that's where planets form from. There's all sorts of 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.400 collisions and things get bigger and kind of clump together, 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.040 and as they get bigger, they attract more stuff. And 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:13.960 the closer you are into, the closer you are to 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:17.440 the star, the more likely you are to attract heavy 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:21.120 stuff like say, iron, nickel, stuff that makes up rocky planets, right, 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.200 And everybody's like corecretion model, that's just how planets form. 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:29.480 But then there's a group of like renegade astrophysicists led 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:32.800 by a guy named Alan Boss, who are basically like no. 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.440 That leaves a couple of questions out there. One is 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.920 that there's less rocky debris in the outer reaches of 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:44.840 this disc that's swirling around the Sun, so you know, 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.760 how can a gas giant be made out of rocky core? 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:52.600 And then secondly that the remnants that are out there, 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.440 say like dust and gases like hydrogen and helium, they 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:58.800 will float away into outer space and out of the 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:02.880 Solar System and out of reach before a gas giant 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:08.440 could form using the core accretion model. So what they've 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:10.960 come up with instead is called the disk instability model. 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:13.960 And they said, you don't need rocky stuff like iron 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:17.280 and nickel to form a gas giant. It forms from 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:21.840 gases from the start, And the core accretion model people said, okay, 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:26.080 smart guys, how how could that possibly happen? And the 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:31.440 disk instability model people said that that swirling disk becomes 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:34.200 so compressed and so dense from swirling around the Sun 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:36.760 for so long that when it breaks up, some of 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:39.520 that dust and gas has enough density that it can 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:44.000 attract other dust and gases and hence form a gas giant. 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:47.800 And the core accretion model people were a gog. 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:53.160 I love that word, by the way, I do too. 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.000 It works really well well. 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:59.639 Another remarkable thing about Saturn are the just incredible storms 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:03.320 that have and around Saturn. There's a very large temperature 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:07.000 difference between the very hot interlators that we were talking about. 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:10.320 I can't remember how many degrees fahrenheit. 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:12.159 We said, but fifteen thousand, yeah. 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:16.520 Fifteen thousand, and then the very icy atmosphere out there 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:21.640 is very very cold I see obviously, and so near 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.679 the equator you're going to have winds that are going 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:29.840 about one thousand miles an hour. You've got a very 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:34.680 erratic atmosphere, so it's not like it's just constantly stormy. 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:37.680 There may be years that go between storms, but then 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:40.040 they might go through a storm that lasts like literal 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:43.679 years and years and years. They photograph one with the 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:47.639 Cassini probe in twenty ten, and this storm was so 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.960 big and this is you know, on a big planet 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:53.800 that it went all the way around and met itself 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:57.639 like a single storm system like Borros. Yeah, that is 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:00.960 just I mean, we've seen some crazy storms here in 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:05.640 recent years where like, you know, from middle Mexico all 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.200 the way up through like the northeast of the United States. 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:09.919 I'll and I'll look at a Doppler and be like, 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.760 that's incredible to see a storm that large. So imagine 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:18.399 when going all around the entire planet of Earth, and 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.640 then imagine Earth's size and relation to Saturn, and that'll 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:23.120 kind of tell you how big of a storm we're 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:23.520 talking about. 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:26.720 Yeah, it's absolutely nuts. And the reason why that it's 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.840 got such a crazy atmosphere is because of that temperature difference, 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:32.720 the temperature gradient. So remember we were talking about how 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:35.919 tornadoes form on Earth and the tornado alley short stuff 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.359 that you have to have a temperature gradient. Apparently the 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:43.160 same thing happens on Saturn as well. But there's also Chuck, 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:46.639 a really weird weather system that does not come and go. 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:49.760 It's essentially a feature, it seems like, because it was 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.840 first photographed in nineteen eighty one when the Voyager two 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:55.479 probe did a fly by of Saturn and when the 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:58.680 Cassini mission arrived I think in like two thousand and 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:03.280 nine or ten or something like that, it saw the 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:06.040 exact same thing was essentially there. So what they figured 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:08.760 out is it's not a storm. It's a really really 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:13.280 fast jet stream. But the thing about it, I'm sure 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:15.639 people out there who are familiar with jet streams are like, 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:20.359 so big, whoop, Well get this. This jet stream forms 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:23.280 a hexagon around the top of the planet. It's one 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:24.879 of the weirdest things I've ever seen. 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:29.240 Yeah, it's like you said, they photographed it in nineteen 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:35.040 eighty one, and then I think the Cassini Huygens mission 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:38.719 ended in twenty seventeen and it was still there and 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:42.320 still basically looked the same, and I can only reckon 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:43.639 that it's still like that today. 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:45.639 Yeah, I think that's a good reckon. 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:49.040 We're talking five hundred mile an hour winds at the 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:53.639 center of this vortex, and they think that weird shape 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:57.760 is due to the really fast rotation, which makes a 0:20:57.800 --> 0:21:01.520 bulge at the equator and flattens things out at the pole. 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:05.200 So it's just created this really strange kind of jet stream, 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:06.119 this strange shape. 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:08.879 Yeah, So I think, Chuck, we can't really put it 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:11.600 off any longer. I believe that it's time to talk 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:14.560 about Saturn's rings because I mean, imagine if we didn't 0:21:14.760 --> 0:21:15.800 in this episode. 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:17.879 Yeah, I mean you mentioned, you know, it's not the 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:22.200 only one with rings. I know you mentioned myanus. 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:25.000 Sorry that's three. 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:28.200 I know that's the lowest of lowing fruit. 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:31.120 Though Phil would be like, that's fine. 0:21:31.080 --> 0:21:34.080 Yeah, Phil would love it. But Neptune and Jupiter, I'm 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:35.560 not sure if you mentioned those. Those are some other 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:39.400 ringed planets. But Saturns are like, those are the show stoppers. 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:43.880 They're incredible. If you've ever you know, do yourself a favor, 0:21:43.920 --> 0:21:47.200 if you've never looked at like real pictures, like telescopic 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:50.800 pictures of Saturn, like, do so, because oh it's incredible 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:52.400 looking these pictures. 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:54.440 I have an anecdote about that. 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:55.600 Let's hear it. 0:21:55.640 --> 0:21:58.520 So remember we did an Australian tour a few years back. 0:21:59.040 --> 0:21:59.520 It was great. 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:02.160 Yes, yeah, it was on one of the days off. 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:05.080 You mean, I went to the Sydney Observatory one night. 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:07.520 Oh cool, and they had just happened to have one 0:22:07.560 --> 0:22:10.440 of their telescopes trained on Saturn and you could lean 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:13.720 over and look through the eyepiece. And we did, and 0:22:13.960 --> 0:22:18.080 both of us just started laughing because it looked so fake, 0:22:18.680 --> 0:22:22.480 like a little white cutout of Saturn, just fat as. 0:22:23.040 --> 0:22:25.600 It just looked like they were like, we can't find Saturn, 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:26.400 so we're gonna. 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:28.400 Have to put this slide exactly. 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:32.119 But the volunteer was looking at us like, what do 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:36.399 you what's so funny about Saturn. Basically we just moved along. 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:38.920 But that was our that's my Saturn annexode. 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:41.720 And you said it looked fake, and he's like, that's real, man. 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:44.960 No, we didn't. We didn't bother to say anything. It 0:22:45.000 --> 0:22:46.360 was mine and Yumi's little joke. 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:49.840 That was the worst aussy accent I've ever done, and 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:52.280 I've done some pretty good ones over the years. I 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:53.120