Visiting Saturn

Visiting Saturn

Geocache coordinates: 47.6354,-122.5203 | 47°38’7.54N 122°31’12.9W

True Values
Distance from the Sun:
 890,400,000 mi
Diameter: 72,390 mi

Modeled Values
Modeled distance from the Sun: 5,147 feet
Modeled diameter: 5 inches

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the least dense planet in our Solar system. Saturn also spins so fast that it is also the most squashed planet in the Solar system! At first, astronomers mistook Saturn’s rings for moons. It took 45 years to them to realize that they were instead looking at a thin flat ring.

In our model, Saturn has been shrunk down to five inches in diameter, just about the width of a DVD. Remember that Earth in our model is a small marble!

Saturn is a gas giant with an iron core, surrounded metallic hydrogen, liquid hydrogen, liquid helium, and a gaseous layer.

 

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