By Madeleine Stiffler
As the sixth planet from the sun and second largest planet in the solar system, calling Saturn “super” is an understatement. This slow moving planet only orbits the sun once every 29.4 earth years. Since Saturn’s orbit is so leisurely amongst the background of the stars, it has earned the nickname “The Oldest of the Old” from ancient Assyrians. Unlike having a single atmosphere like Earth, Saturn’s atmosphere is divided into bands of clouds made up of ammonia ice and cold hydrogen and sulfur mixtures. Maybe flat-Earthers are confusing Earth with Saturn since it happens to be the flattest planet in the solar system with its polar diameter being a whopping 90% of the planet’s equatorial diameter. The reason Saturn is so flat is a result of its low density and fast rotation; Saturn turns on its axis once every 10 hours and 34 minutes giving it the second-shortest day of all the planets in the solar system. Similar to its neighboring planet, Jupiter, Saturn also has oval-shaped storms which result from wave patterns in the upper clouds of the planet. Think Beyonce is a big fan of Saturn? Frankly, the planet is most famous for its royal rings, which are the most extensive in the solar system. The Saturnian rings are made of mostly chunks of ice and small amounts of carbonaceous dust. The rings stretch out more than 120,700 km from the planet, but are amazingly thin: only about 20 meters thick. Talk about Luna, Saturn has a total of 150 moons and even more smaller moonlets, the largest moons are Titan and Rhea. Other moons on the planet even have frozen oceans beneath their atmosphere. Titan is so compelling, yet it is mostly composed of simply water, ice, and rock. The monstrous moon’s frozen surface has lakes of liquid methane and landscapes covered with frozen nitrogen. On a more creepy note, planetary scientists consider Titan to be a possible harbor for life, but not Earth-like life… Anyway, this gas giant planet has only had four visitors: Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and 2, and the Cassini-Huygens mission. Cassini orbited Saturn from July 2004 until September 2017, sending back a wealth of data about the planet, its moons, and its rings. Despite being horrifically inhabitable, Saturn remains a bag of tricks for astronomers and scientists throughout the world as they work hard to discover and reveal more about the planet.