Saturn, A Place In The Universe
Did you know the Universe is a huge space that contains everything in existence, from the smallest speck of dust, to the largest galaxy? Scientists have been trying to measure the Universe, but the Universe is moving and growing all
the time.
Our solar system is shaped like an ellipse, and is part of a galaxy known as the Milky Way. The Milky Way is part of the Universe.
The solar system is the Sun and all the objects that rotate around it. Some objects that travel around the sun are moons, asteroids, comets, meteoroids and planets. The Sun is the centre of the solar system and causes great gravitational pull on all these objects.
A planet is defined as a large space body that reflects light. In our solar system, the light is reflected from the Sun. The planets in the solar system are held in their orbits by the Sun's gravity. We can classify our planets into inner planets and outer planets. The inner planets are closest to the Sun and are made of rock. They are solid and include Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The outer planets are large planets made up of gases. The outer planets are Neptune Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. Pluto is an outer planet, but is not gaseous. In fact, had Pluto been discovered today, it probably would have been classified as a moon, not a planet.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun. Many rings made of ice particles surround it. Govanni Cassini was an astronomer who discovered the rings of Saturn. There is a large gap between
the rings called the Cassini Division, named after its discoverer. Cassini also found four of Saturn's moons.
In August of 1981, NASA's Voyager 2 flew past Saturn. Scientists learned that Saturn had faster winds than anyone had previously thought. They also discovered that Saturn had more rings, moons, and heat than they had ever imagined.
