Diameter—73,700
Although Jupiter is the largest planet and Mars the most interesting planet, the planet Saturn, as seen through a large telescope, is the most uniquely beautiful creation that man has ever beheld. The spectacle of a huge silvery ball surrounded by an equally huge and silvery ring suddenly disclosed in the midst of the darkness, is such an astounding surprise that one can never forget the strange sensations experienced when first beholding it.
Saturn moves very slowly through the sky, traveling on the average only about one degree a month and spending two or three years in each zodiacal constellation. This is because its pathway lies millions of miles beyond that of Jupiter's, and is so large that it takes the planet 29½ years to complete its circuit around the sun.
Saturn is believed to be composed mainly of gases and vapors or to be at least in a fluid condition with no solid crust. Its density is less than that of any other planet in the solar system, being only 0.70 as compared with water as unity. This is only about one-half as great as the density of Jupiter, which is somewhat greater than that of water. The weight of the earth is five and one-half times that of water. If the earth and Saturn were two balls immersed in an ocean large enough to hold them, the earth would sink like a ball of metal while Saturn would float like a ball of wood.
A white belt may usually be seen near the equator of Saturn and curious pale gray caps cover both the poles. Between these are faint colors and other dim belts. Its colors as markings are not as pronounced as in the case of Jupiter, on which they are far more distinct as this latter planet is 400,000,000 miles closer to the earth. The mysterious gray color of the caps at the poles of Saturn remain an enigma and the spectroscope shows that Saturn contains some substance which has not yet been identified.
Saturn's equator is inclined to the plane of its orbit at an angle of 27 degrees—a direct contrast to the axis of Jupiter which is almost perpendicular. This would cause Saturn to have very marked seasonal changes and very long seasons for one of its years is equal to almost 30 of ours.
Day and night on Saturn are very short for this huge planet turns completely around in 10¼ hours. With only 5⅛ hours of daylight (and Saturn receives only ¹⁄₉₀th as much light per unit area as that received by the earth), one would hardly get up before it was time to go to bed. But perhaps the future Saturnian will be so constructed that he does not have to spend so many hours in sleep, or perhaps, as in the Golden Age when the god Saturn ruled on earth and the needs of man were brought forth without labor, this length of day would be quite enough for general entertainment. Again, they might be such quick-witted creatures that they could accomplish a thing while we were thinking about it, or, yet again, they might not care to slave all their days in order to indulge in such foolishly complex lives as we do here and 5⅛ hours would prove a great plenty. How we do ramble on! Yet is it not a little fun to stop a moment and conjecture about folks on a distant world? Perhaps they could never be—perhaps Saturn may never mature into a habitable globe—but then, who knows?
THE RINGS OF SATURN
John H. Thayer in his interesting article on Saturn in Popular Astronomy, March, 1919, says: "If you want to see a picture painted as only the hand of God can paint it, go with me to Saturn." He then beautifully describes the scene of the wonderful band of silvery light which arches the sky near the equator, and the bewildering panorama of many moons, full round disks, quarter phases and thin crescents displayed in the Saturnian nights. Not only would the nights be startling to an earth-being; during the daytime their tiny sun would skim across the sky at the rate of about the distance of the diameter of the moon in every minute, and then after the sun literally dropped below the horizon, the stars and crescents and disks and quarters of moons would shoot across equally fast.
Suppose all the inhabitants of the solar system were forced to exist in a medium like the ocean, for instance, to know nothing of such celestial scenes; perhaps the unfortunate inhabitants of Venus can see no more clearly through that dense atmosphere which surrounds their globe.