WEBVTT - How Does Saturn Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam. Here. The planet Saturn takes

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<v Speaker 1>its name from a Roman god of agriculture, and of

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<v Speaker 1>all the planets revolving around our Sun, it's cultivated, if

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<v Speaker 1>you will, the greatest ring system by far. Shining rings

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<v Speaker 1>filled with ice, dust and rock orbit it's equator. The

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<v Speaker 1>widest one, called the Phoebe Ring, has an outer edge

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<v Speaker 1>that's millions of miles away from Saturn itself. For comparison,

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<v Speaker 1>the average distance between Earth and our Moon is a

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<v Speaker 1>paltry two thirty nine thousand miles or four thousand kilometers.

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<v Speaker 1>Once again, astronomy puts the human ego in check. Saturn's

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<v Speaker 1>rings get all the attention, but we shouldn't ignore its

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<v Speaker 1>other attributes. The sixth planet in our solar system, it's

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<v Speaker 1>also the biggest after Jupiter. Those two are in a

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<v Speaker 1>league of their own. If you mushed every planet from

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<v Speaker 1>Mercury to Neptune together, Saturn and Jupiter would account for

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<v Speaker 1>over night in d percent of the cumulative mass of

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<v Speaker 1>that planetary mass. But despite its immense size, Saturn is

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<v Speaker 1>the least dense planet in the Sun's orbit, and the

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<v Speaker 1>least spherical too. We'll need to look at its physical

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<v Speaker 1>makeup to understand why. Research published in twenty nineteen showed

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<v Speaker 1>that a day on Saturn lasts just ten hours, thirty

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<v Speaker 1>three minutes and thirty eight seconds. It's spin rate helps

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<v Speaker 1>explain one of the ringed world's stranger qualities. You see,

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<v Speaker 1>Saturn is ten percent wider than it is tall, a

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<v Speaker 1>difference of over seven thousand miles or nearly twelve thousand kilometers.

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<v Speaker 1>Astronomers call that kind of disparity and equatorial bulge. Every

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<v Speaker 1>planet in the Solar System has one, but Saturn's is

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<v Speaker 1>the most extreme. Saturn rotates around its axis at a

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<v Speaker 1>very high speed, hence the brevity of its days. And

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<v Speaker 1>here's where density comes into play. Like Jupiter, Saturn is

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<v Speaker 1>a gas giant. Such worlds predominantly consist of hydrogen and helium,

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<v Speaker 1>and whereas Earth is solid on the outside, gas giants

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<v Speaker 1>are not. They may, however, have hard inner cores. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>Saturn is downright huge in terms of volume. Some seven

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and sixty four Earth sized objects could fit inside

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<v Speaker 1>of it, and the planet is ninety five times as

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<v Speaker 1>massive as our home world, and yet relative to its size,

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<v Speaker 1>Earth is eight times more dense in fact water, Yes,

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<v Speaker 1>plain water is denser than Saturn, although that doesn't mean

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<v Speaker 1>the planet would float. It's not cohesive enough, so thanks

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<v Speaker 1>to its low, low density and zippy rotational speed, Saturn

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<v Speaker 1>has been deformed into an oblong world that looks kind

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<v Speaker 1>of squished in profile. Jupiter's southern hemisphere famously has an

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<v Speaker 1>ongoing storm called the Great Red Spot. Saturn's answer to

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<v Speaker 1>this is the Great White Spots, which are periodic tempests

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<v Speaker 1>that arise every thirty earth years. First detected in eighteen

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<v Speaker 1>seventy six, these weather events are colossal in scale. NASA's

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<v Speaker 1>Cassini spacecraft spent thirteen productive years hovering around Saturn. On December,

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<v Speaker 1>it witnessed the most recent iteration of the Great White

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<v Speaker 1>Spot phenomenon. The storm was about eight hundred miles by

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<v Speaker 1>six hundred miles long when it first began that's about kilometers,

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<v Speaker 1>But over the next six months, the spot expanded longitudinally

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<v Speaker 1>until it had looped itself around the planet in a

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<v Speaker 1>gigantic circle. Some researchers think the Great White Spots might

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<v Speaker 1>be part of a cycle that sees the outer layer

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<v Speaker 1>of Saturn's atmosphere slowly lose heat, allowing the warm air

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<v Speaker 1>from lower levels to burst upward. Meanwhile, up at Saturn's

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<v Speaker 1>north pole, there's a cloud pattern shaped like a giant hexagon.

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<v Speaker 1>This pleasantly symmetrical jet stream spins counterclockwise, measures about twenty

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<v Speaker 1>thousand miles or thirty kilometers across, and includes a hurricane

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<v Speaker 1>that's been swirling right over the pole ever since it

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<v Speaker 1>was discovered. Back. Of course, it's not the hexagon that

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<v Speaker 1>earns Saturn a place on Chucky Finster's T shirt you

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<v Speaker 1>know from Rugrats. Anyway, the gas giant is most famous

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<v Speaker 1>for the spectacular ring system encircling it. Planetary rings aren't

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<v Speaker 1>rare per se a Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune have them

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<v Speaker 1>as well, yet in terms of sheer scale, the network

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<v Speaker 1>around Saturn is totally unrivaled. Most of the primary rings

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<v Speaker 1>come with letter names of The closest one to Saturn

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<v Speaker 1>is called the D ring, which has an inner radius

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<v Speaker 1>of about forty two miles or sixty seven kilometers, so

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<v Speaker 1>a lot closer than our moon. It's surrounded by the C, B, A, F, G,

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<v Speaker 1>and E rings in that order. By the way, the

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<v Speaker 1>rings aren't arranged alphabetically because the naming system reflects the

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<v Speaker 1>dates of their discovery. A, B, and C were sited

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<v Speaker 1>before the rest. When measured from its outside edge, the

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<v Speaker 1>E ring showcases an impressive three hundred thousand mile radius

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<v Speaker 1>or four d and eighty thousand kilometers, or at least

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<v Speaker 1>that looks impressive until you get to know the big

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<v Speaker 1>bad Phoebe ring that we mentioned earlier. First spotted in

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<v Speaker 1>two thousand nine, this one was named after one of

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<v Speaker 1>Saturn's moons. Untold trillions of ice, rock, and dust particles

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<v Speaker 1>make up these rings. Some bits are the size of

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<v Speaker 1>a sugar grain, others could probably dwarf your house. In

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<v Speaker 1>any case, the ring material is stretched remarkably thin. Saturn's

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<v Speaker 1>rings may be as thick as two miles or three

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<v Speaker 1>kilometers wide, down to just thirty two ft or ten

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<v Speaker 1>ms wide, so proportionately, the gas giants iconic rings are

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<v Speaker 1>thinner than a typical sheet of writing paper, as noted

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<v Speaker 1>by astronomer phil Plate. Whereas Saturn itself is probably around

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<v Speaker 1>four point five billion years old, the age of its

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<v Speaker 1>rings isn't as clear. Some scientists think that they were

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<v Speaker 1>formed ten million to a hundred million years ago when

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<v Speaker 1>an icy comet or some ice covered moons came too

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<v Speaker 1>close to the planet, the visitor or visitors would have

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<v Speaker 1>met a grizzly end, getting ripped to pieces by Saturn's gravity.

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<v Speaker 1>As those fragments collided, they grew smaller and multiplied, giving

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<v Speaker 1>rise to the skinny but brilliant system we all know today.

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<v Speaker 1>On the other hand, a twenty nineteen paper argued that

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<v Speaker 1>the rings might have originated at an earlier stage in

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<v Speaker 1>the history of our Solar System. We'll have to see

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<v Speaker 1>how the debate unfolds as new evidence arises. There's lots

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<v Speaker 1>about this planet that we're still learning. In October of

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<v Speaker 1>twenty nineteen, the International Astronomical Union heralded the discovery of

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<v Speaker 1>twenty newfound moons orbiting the gas giant. With these bodies

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<v Speaker 1>added to the mix, there are now eighty two verified

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<v Speaker 1>Saturn moons altogether. No other planet in the Solar System

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<v Speaker 1>has that many natural satellites, not even Mighty Jupiter. You

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<v Speaker 1>can find Saturn's moons in around and beyond the Ring system.

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<v Speaker 1>Before Cassini was retired in ten it revealed that some

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<v Speaker 1>of them gather clumps of ice and dust from the rings.

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<v Speaker 1>Saturn's moon Titan is especially well named. It's our solar

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<v Speaker 1>systems second biggest moon overall, and it's dotted with seas,

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<v Speaker 1>lakes and rivers of liquid methane and ethane. There's only

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<v Speaker 1>one other body within the Sun's orbit that has standing

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<v Speaker 1>pools of liquid that we know about, and here's a hint.

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<v Speaker 1>You're sitting on it right now. Titan is also noteworthy

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<v Speaker 1>for having an atmosphere, and it's theorized that there could

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<v Speaker 1>be ice volcanoes that spew water instead of lava like Earth.

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<v Speaker 1>Saturn gets auroras at its poles. They're invisible to the

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<v Speaker 1>unaided human eye, but the Cassini spacecraft and the Hubble

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<v Speaker 1>space telescope have captured footage of them using infrared and

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<v Speaker 1>ultra violet imaging. Today's episode was written by Mark Bancini

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<v Speaker 1>and produced by Tyler Clay. For more on this and

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<v Speaker 1>lots of other topics, is it how stuffworks dot com.

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