For Aron: Using Celestial Resources

Aron asked: Could, if we really wanted to, collect the hydrogen and helium and us it as fuel? Saturn could become a important fuel station in interstellar spaceflight. Because of the gravity, the fuel would be hard to get. Something I don't get, why are the rings in on a plane, why doesn't Saturn have a shell of debris?

In theory, we could eventually, use the gases on the gas giants for fuel, once we get travel out that far into the solar system reliable and economic. Using an oxygen/hydrogen combustion system, the trip to Saturn is unlikely to be worth what one could gather.

If, however, we manage to make a workable fusion engine, gathering hydrogen might make sense, but I'm not sure, with that gravity well (and Saturn's speedy spinning), taking it from the planet itself will be efficient. However, Saturn has ice (presumably) in the rings and moons that likely have methane and or other hydrogen materials. Converting methane to hydrogen would likely be easier than trying to extract actual hydrogen from the planet itself.

As for the rings (and several of the gas giants have them, though none are as impressive as the Saturn rings), no one's entirely certain how they came to be. Presumably, they are debris from broken up moons or objects that get sucked in by Saturn's gravitational pull, but I'm not sure anyone's sure. It does seem clear that some of the many moons of Saturn help keep the rings in place. They are 250,000 km in diameter but less than a kilometer in thickness. That's quite an unusual feature.

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For Shakespeare: What About Saturn?

Shakespeare said: That is too cool. And the picture! WOW! And think, I'd have forever to work every day, and I could get so much done in a year on that planet. Then again, my laptop would melt, and I would too, so the whole point is moot. Any details about Saturn? It's my personal favorite, after Earth (since Earth gives me an actual place to exist).


For any student of the solar system, I can't recommend Nine Planets website highly enough. It's always the first place I go when checking out another planet. Wikipedia has some good poop, too. So, what do they have to say about Saturn?

First, it's ironic that the arguably most beautiful planet in the solar system should be named after a God who is often used to personify old age. Not to mention Saturn's unsavory tendency to eat his own children.

Much of what we say about Saturn is comparing her to Jupiter, the titan of the gas giants. Both planets are composed primarily hydrogen (75%) and helium(25%), with traces of ammonia, methane, water and rock. Saturn is the least dense of the gas giants, at only 70% of the density of water. Like Jupiter, it is subject to visible storms (like the hexagonal storm to the left), generates it's own heat (though to a lesser extent), has a magnetic field (to a much lesser extent) and has a large number of moons. We used to say, categorically, that Saturn had the most moons actually, but they've discovered so many recently, I'm not sure we have a set number. Saturn has 34 named moons which would seem plenty, but apparently wasn't. About 200 moons have been observed, 61 in stable orbits.
Jupiter has a faint set of rings as well, but no planet in the solar system has rings as spectacular as Saturn. When astronomers first found her, she confused them as she looked oblate (and is, actually, more on that in a moment). When Earth is in plane with her rings, they "disappear" confusing those early astonomers even more.

She's quite luminous, perhaps more than her heat-generating processes can justify and her rings are particularly brilliant, presumed to be largely ice and ice-covered rocks. Saturn is not really spherical, rather a sort of flattened sphere because of her fluid state and rapid rotation (days are ~10.5 hours long, but not everything rotates at the same speed) pull her equatorial plane out a bit.

No one seems to be quite sure what creates Saturn's rings (or any other rings), but the consensus seems to be that they can't remain indefinitely, that they must be regenerated. It has also been noted that several moons are pivotal in maintaining and affecting the rings.

Really, there is so much good reading available on Saturn and her rings and her many fascinating moons. You should check out my links and learn more.

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