Discovered by : Galileo Galilei
Discovered in year : 1610
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and is the second largest in the solar system with an equatorial diameter of 119,300 kilometres (74,130 miles). Saturn is visibly flattened at the poles, a result of the very fast rotation of the planet on its axis. Its day is 10 hours, 39 minutes long, and it takes 29.5 Earth years to revolve about the Sun. The atmosphere is primarily composed of hydrogen with small amounts of helium and methane. Saturn's ring system makes the planet one of the most beautiful objects in the solar system. The rings are split into a number of different parts, which include the bright A and B rings and a fainter C ring.Saturn has 30 named satellites and more continue to be discovered.
Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the Scientific Revolution. Galileo's full name was Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei. He was born in Pisa (then part of the Duchy of Florence), Italy. In 1610, Galileo Galilei looked through his telescope and saw Saturn’s planetary rings, but his telescope was not good enough to properly identify them. In fact, he thought that he was seeing three different planets. In 1612 Saturn’s rings were on the same plane as the Earth so could not be seen, and Galileo was very confused. When they reappeared in 1613 he was even more confused.
Development in the Discovery of Saturn
In 1655, Christiaan Huygens used a far more superior telescope and became the first person to discover that Saturn was surrounded by rings. He actually thought there was only one ring. In 1675, twenty years later, Giovanni Domenico Cassini discovered that Saturn actually had multiple rings. In 1859, James Clerk Maxwell hypothesised that the ‘rings’ were all just individual small particles. In other words, he hypothesised that the rings were ‘broken’. It was only in 1895 that his theory was proven correct. Thus we now know that Saturn is surrounded by mostly ice particles, with some rocks and other debris.
The Role of Discovery of Saturn in the Improvement Of Human Life
- It's discovery lead to a better understanding of Universe and it's components
- It's discovery speeded up the development of telescopes and it's business
- It may help in the understanding of how earth began as Titan, the largest of Saturn’s Moons had a similar beginning. Titan has some of the same building blocks for life to be supported.
- The position of Saturn is also used in Astrology for predictions
- It is helping further research of the planet so that it can be utilised for the benefit of mankind.
