Earth Sciences 1086F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Allotropes Of Oxygen, Methane Clathrate, Orbital Speed
19 Mar 2019
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Saturn is the most distant of the five planets easily visible to the naked eye from earth (the other four being mercury, Venus, mars and jupiter), and was the last planet known to early astronomers until uranus was discovered in 1781. Unless you"ve got the eyes of an eagle, you"ll probably require some magnifying instrument (binoculars?) with at least 20x to see the rings of saturn. 15. 1, image taken by voyager 2 in 1981) has played second fiddle" to its own rings since galileo first saw the planet in 1610. He didn"t recognize the rings for what they are (see saturn"s rings" below), but we know them now as one of the great sights in the solar system. Because saturn is more remote from the warming influence of the sun, a thick high altitude haze layer (of cirrus-type ammonia-ice crystals) shrouds the planet, giving it a very bland appearance. Without the rings it wouldn"t be much to look at!
