It has a fleet of moons ranging from the simply odd to the truly bizarre. Even better is how clever people can use that information, too, learning so much about this most beautiful planet in the solar system. Our planet has a solid surface, so you can simply stand in one spot and see how long, for example, it takes a star to circle once in the sky (you can use the Sun, but Earth’s orbit complicates things there). Now NASA scientists have used data from the Cassini spacecraft to pin down an answer and solve the puzzle: A day on Saturn is ten hours, 33 minutes, and 38 seconds long. But for the moment, he says, “the ultimate culprit for those oscillations inside Saturn remains a genuine mystery.”, Photograph by NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute. As I recently wrote, Saturn is a weird place. How long is a day on Saturn? Clues in Saturn’s rings divulge the planet’s rotation rate: 10 hours, 33 minutes, 38 seconds. In this way, the ring particles act like sensitive seismometers, measuring changes inside the planet below! Cassini has dived between Saturn and its rings 15 times now, with seven more dives to go, and continues to collect unprecedented science results — along with some spectacular images. Given that Saturn is visible to the naked eye, easily observable with even a small telescope, and studied by hundred of astronomers for centuries, including with spacecraft that have gone there, you’d think we’d have a pretty good idea about all its basics by now. How Long Is A Day On Saturn? Get the latest updates on NASA missions, watch NASA TV live, and learn about our quest to reveal the unknown and benefit all humankind. “Saturn is the only planet whose rotation is hard to measure,” says Matthew Tiscareno, a senior research scientist at the SETI Institute who wasn’t part of the new study. How long is a day on Saturn? This is some fiercely high-level stuff. Measuring the … This, by the way, is really fast. Plus, a tale of two Ahsokas, Freaky's body-switching makes the real 'Final Girl' slasher trope explicit in an unexpected way, WIRE Buzz: Ryan Reynolds' time travel team-up first look; sci-fi leads top entertainment IPs; more, Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker drops bomb on fate of ‘the fam’ in holiday special, Batman’s flat broke in Caped Crusader pandemic relief short from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Except every week in your inbox. It has layers, and internal motions. Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / Ian Regan. Saturn is about 75,000 miles (120,000 km) across, and is flattened at the poles because of its very rapid rotation. Since Cassini helped scientists learn more about the rings of the second-largest planet in the Solar System, they could now measure how long is a day on Saturn. The properties of these waves depend on what they are travelling through and what generated them. on Reddit, How our galaxy will kill our solar system in a trillion years, planet by planet, The giant Arecibo radio telescope to be decommissioned due to damage, the scientists were able to get a fairly precise measurement of Saturn’s rotation, the depth and breadth of information Cassini returned to us back on Earth. Data from Voyager estimated the day to be 10 hours 39 minutes and 23 seconds, but the new data puts the day on Saturn at 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds. This is called a sidereal day. 5 Replies to “How Long is a Day on Saturn?” NunoG says: December 22, 2007 at 5:06 AM . The beauty of Saturn’s delicate system of rings is indisputable, but human fascination with them isn’t all about aesthetics; those rings can tell us incredible scientific stories, too. But there have been some seen by Cassini in the C ring that didn’t line up right with any moons… but they do with the predicted oscillations inside Saturn. At the same time, several spacecraft orbiting Saturn have confirmed that its magnetic field is freakishly on-the-level, aligned near-perfectly with its rotational pole. “Its timbre, as in the set of allowed frequencies for its oscillations, is dictated by its overall structure: its size, shape, composition, temperature, and so on.”. I’ll note the title of the paper is “Cassini Ring Seismology as a Probe of Saturn’s Interior. On Earth, a sidereal day is almost exactly 23 hours and 56 minutes. The "canonical" (that is, commonly accepted) day length on Jupiter is determined by the rotation rate of its magnetic field, which is nine hours, 55 minutes long. And, of course, it has that huge ring system. According to a new study, it's 10 hours, 47 minutes and 6 seconds -- give or take 40 seconds. They looked at the rings . Each time Cassini has tried to pin down the exact length of a Saturnian day, the numbers change. As per calculations, the length of one day on Saturn is 10 hours 33 minutes and 38 seconds. If a mass equal to one of Saturn’s moderate-size moons shifts around within the planet, it can cause part of the rings to slosh back and forth. Their model not only revealed some of the planet’s inner workings, but it also managed to finally calculate the length of a Saturnian day. The effect of this is that the particles move out of their usual orbit one after another, creating a spiral wave pattern in the rings. How long is a day on Saturn? This is something I wouldn’t have expected in this way, that Cassini would help us understand not just the details of Saturn, its moons, and rings, but also some of the most fundamental properties of it as well. They found that Saturn spins once every 10 hours, 33 minutes, and 38 seconds (±1m52s/1m19s) — several minutes faster than both the Voyager measurements and the Cassini ones based on Saturn’s magnetic field. Saturn’s rotation is even more complicated than that, since different parts of the planet rotate at different speeds. Another way to measure a day is to count the amount of time it takes for a planet to completely spin around and make one full rotation. That’s been done for all four of the outer giant planets. The rings of Saturn have been used to work out the length of a day on the planet. How long is a day on Saturn? This generates radio waves, which can be detected by spacecraft. They looked at the rings. Fangrrls is about kicking down doors, breaking boundaries and celebrating female fans with fun, witty and entertaining content. That’s not the case in reality, and future papers by this team will include the more complex nature of the way Saturn rotates, with different layers moving at different rates. But when Cassini visited the gas giant, it measured the day as 10 hours, 47 minutes. Revealing how long one Saturn day lasts was impossible for astronomers until now as the information was hidden due to Saturn’s rings. is such a seemingly simple question. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute. That means its rotation doesn’t cause any measurable change in its magnetic field. Normally that would be impossible to detect… except Saturn has those magnificent rings, made of gazillions of tiny bits of frozen water ice. (See, for instance, evidence from Cassini that the rings are raining on Saturn.). However, astronomers using Cassini data have come up with a clever way to figure out Saturn’s day. That enabled it to see tiny details that are “impossible to achieve” using ground-based telescopes, O’Donoghue says. Saturn, however, wasn’t playing ball. The answer is still unclear as the Cassini spacecraft approaches its “Grand Finale” plunge into the ringed planet’s atmosphere. It’s incredible, the depth and breadth of information Cassini returned to us back on Earth. Saturn hasn't slowed down, Kurth says. Saturn, though, presents a problem: There’s no surface. A day is only 10 hours long on Saturn. Its mass, size, and so on. How long is a day on Saturn? Saturn is about 75,000 miles (120,000 km) across, and is flattened at the poles because of its very rapid rotation. Venus: 225 days. Data from Voyager estimated the day to be 10 hours 39 minutes and 23 seconds, but the new data puts the day on Saturn at 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 … And the scientists aren’t done yet! It’s a bit like a snare drum: Something rocks the main instrument, and the snare shakes in response. We Finally Know How Long a Day on Saturn Is By studying oscillations in the planet’s iconic rings, researchers have determined it takes Saturn 10 hours, 33 … Day Length. Cassini took this shot of Saturn (right), the C ring (dark grey) and brighter B ring from a distance of 627,000 kilometers on Sept. 4, 2005. Credit: WIRE Buzz: Noah Hawley's Alien and Star Trek projects on pause. Only after Voyagers 1 and 2 sent home data, in 1980 and 1981, could scientists analyse patterns that suggested a day on Saturn is about 10:40 hours long. © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, © 2015- That’s a lot when the day on Saturn is a little over 10 hours long. Cassini has dived between Saturn and its rings 15 times now, with seven more dives to go, and continues to collect unprecedented science results — along with some spectacular images. Rigid Rotation”. Here is how long it takes each of the planets in our solar system to orbit around the Sun (in Earth days): Mercury: 88 days. All rights reserved. But for the ringed planet, it’s a variable that astronomers have been struggling with for decades. I. Saturn NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain The magnetic field lines act a little bit like a net, sweeping up particles in space as the planet spins. "How long is one day on Saturn?" We know how long an Earth day is, but how about the other planets in our solar system? For the most part, we do. Saturn's day is longer than 10 hours and 47 minutes, says William Kurth at the University of Iowa. Print E-Mail. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/01/how-long-is-day-on-saturn-astronomers-just-found-out.html, evidence from Cassini that the rings are raining on Saturn. Finally cracking the mystery all came down to the late, great Cassini spacecraft, says James O’Donoghue, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center who was not involved in the study. The fact that Saturn’s internal mass and its errant behavior can cause ring waves was first evidenced in the early 1990s, says Tiscareno. It’s a giant gas planet mostly consisting of hydrogen and helium. Well, kinda. (2006, May 3) … That’s because the planet has no solid surface with landmarks that could be monitored as it rotates. This revelation is important because it’s “a fundamental property of any planet in the solar system,” notes University of Iowa physicist Bill Kurth, who worked on NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn but who was not on the study team. However, astronomers using Cassini data have come up with a clever way to figure out Saturn’s day. But these waves can also be triggered by the oscillations of material deep within Saturn’s enigmatic interior. Layers deep inside move up and down, or north and south, in a periodic fashion. The Voyager missions gave us one answer: 10 hours, 39 minutes, 24 seconds (that is, 10.7 hours). It has an atmosphere thousands of kilometers thick, and we only see the cloud tops. Close in to Saturn, in its C ring, those icy particles orbit at just the right rate to be affected by the oscillations deep inside Saturn (we call this matchup a resonance). A planet's day is the time it takes the planet to rotate or spin once on its axis. The answer: 10 hours, 33 minutes, and 38 seconds. Earth: 365 days. It’s not clear why. With this in mind, Mankovich’s team created a bespoke numerical model, designed to use the ring waves to work out what the interior structure of Saturn must be like. For years, it wasn’t clear how to solve this conundrum. Astronomers just found out. Strong winds account for the horizontal bands in the atmosphere of this giant gas planet. They move with respect to the atmosphere, making them impossible to use to see how long it takes Saturn to spin. They sometimes ripple or experience waves, normally when orbiting moons tug at them as they pass near all that ice and dust. Using models of Saturn combined with these observations, the scientists were able to get a fairly precise measurement of Saturn’s rotation. Update your browser for more security and the best experience on this site. S A T U R N. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / Ian Regan. Like Comic-Con. That may very well focus in even better on the planet’s spin. This number can now be used in other equations to model the interior of the giant planet, honing in on other details with better confidence. Share. Zoom In. How long is a day on Saturn? The magnetometer results provide the best estimate of the Saturn day to date, because it can see deep inside Saturn. Saturn 101 How did the rings around Saturn form? It doesn’t take much effort to trigger those waves. The team has done “a careful and reliable job” at solving this persistent query, Tiscareno says. Those might have features in them like storms or spots, but these are not exactly anchored to anything solid. But the numbers they got were different by 6 minutes! Strong winds account for the horizontal bands in the atmosphere of this giant gas planet. Mercury: 1,408 hours: Venus: 5,832 hours: Earth: 24 hours: Mars: 25 hours: Jupiter: 10 hours: Saturn: 11 hours: Uranus: 17 hours: Neptune: 16 hours Science and Technology Facilities Council. on Twitter, Share How long is a day on Saturn? They made some simplifying assumptions in their work, mainly that Saturn rotates as a single, rigid body. Smart News Keeping you current We Finally Know How Long a Day on Saturn Is By studying oscillations in the planet’s iconic rings, researchers have determined it takes Saturn … Including, at the end of the day, when exactly is the end of the day. Now, a study published in The Astrophysical Journal has used the planet’s rings to answer a surprisingly frustrating question: How long is a day on Saturn? Using new data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, researchers believe they have solved a longstanding mystery of solar system science: the length of a day on Saturn. “Although you can't hear its oscillations, Saturn is very much like a musical instrument,” Mankovich explains. This gives the particles a little bit of extra energy, like kicking your legs when you’re on a swing. Press Release From: Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council Posted: Thursday, May 4, 2006 . Cassini took this shot of Saturn (right), the C ring (dark grey) and brighter B ring from a distance of 627,000 kilometers on Sept. 4, 2005. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. Plenty of spacecraft have visited Saturn, but Cassini—a “beast of a space probe”—circled the giant world for 13 years with instruments that could watch those rings in unprecedentedly high resolution. Measuring the rotation period of a rocky planet like the Earth is easy, but similar measurements for planets made of gas, such as Saturn, pose problems. Another way is to use a planet’s magnetic field, generated deep inside the planet. crew, What I'm thankful for in 2020: the comics edition, Comics Wire: Unpacking DC's Future State slate; Local Comic Shop Day; and this week's hot reads, Holiday Gift Guide: For the stay at home holiday, The horror of toys: Everything you didn't know about Small Soldiers, Vital Nonsense: Pick your ultimate team based on one actor's resume, Revisiting Marvel's underrated classic, Squadron Supreme, Netflix's La Revolution and why we need more period horror pieces, 35 thoughts we had while watching the LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special, Share How long is a day on Saturn? He explains that the terrestrial planets have surface features that can be tracked. According to a new study, it's 10 hours, 47 minutes and 6 seconds -- give or take 40 seconds. NASA.gov brings you the latest images, videos and news from America's space agency. But, embarrassingly, one property has been maddeningly hard to find: Its rotation rate. When Voyager 2 visited Saturn back in 1981 , it recorded the planet's rotational period as 10 hours, 39 minutes. Knowing how long a given planet’s day lasts can help with interpreting its gravitational field and its internal structure. If a moving mass creates localized changes in the planet’s gravitational field, then that pulls at the rings, too. And a series of recent studies led by the University of Idaho’s Matthew Hedman further built on the notion to develop what the team refers to as kronoseismology, or the ability to see what’s happening inside Saturn using the waves in its rings, a concept first suggested in 1982. It's 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds. Hi, I wasn’t aware of this particular issue. For decades, it was a nagging mystery — how long does a day last on Saturn? Waves like these have been seen, usually created by resonance with the moons. But Saturn throws a monkey in the wrench there too: Its magnetic field is only tipped from its rotation axis by 0.01°! However, astronomers using Cassini data have come up with a clever way to figure out Saturn’s day. Set your timers for 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds — scientists have finally figured out how long a day lasts on Saturn, cracking a lingering mystery about the ringed gas giant.. The other three gas giants don’t, but they have tilted magnetic fields that wobble as these planets rotate, and the disturbances can be used to work out each planet’s rate of rotation. These are very subtle effects caused by very complicated motions of gas inside Saturn where we cannot see them directly, but can be modeled with very complex mathematics. They looked at the rings. For something like Earth that’s not too hard to do. But just 23 years later, the Cassini spacecraft sent data that showed the period had changed by 6 minutes, about 1%— which should take hundreds of millions of years. 2020 National Geographic Partners, LLC. I have no qualms in showing my amazement in this work! Saturn's shadow seems to take a bite out of its famous rings in a composite picture made using some of the final images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, captured in October 2016. on Facebook, Share How long is a day on Saturn? As they do, they very subtly modify the gravity field of Saturn, causing it to change periodically as well. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute) You can find out more info at … S A T U R N. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / Ian Regan. Mars. Still, this measurement represents the bulk motion of Saturn’s spin, the time it takes the bulk of the planet to rotate once, something that wasn’t known before to such high accuracy. Now, a study published in The Astrophysical Journal has used the planet’s rings to answer a surprisingly frustrating question: How long is a day on Saturn? Plateau P5 is located 52,700 miles (84,800 km) from Saturn's center, and long streaks of material shoot through it. Now NASA scientists have used data from the Cassini spacecraft to pin down an answer and solve the puzzle: A day on Saturn is ten hours, 33 minutes, and 38 seconds long. That’s a lot when the day on Saturn is a little over 10 hours long. Set your timers for 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds — scientists have finally figured out how long a day lasts on Saturn, cracking a lingering mystery about the ringed gas giant.. That's according to newly published research that uses data gathered by NASA's Cassini mission before the spacecraft's destruction in September 2017. How long is a day on Saturn? How many moons does the planet have? ... How long is a day on Saturn? That’s a lot when the day on Saturn is a little over 10 hours long. It’s huge but the least dense of all the planets. If this sloshing matches up with the frequency of the ring’s orbit, it resonates, turning a small slosh into a clearly observable spiral wave. The answer: 10 hours, 33 minutes, and 38 seconds. A day on Saturn is 10.656 hours long while a day on Earth is 23.934 hours long. If the magnetic field is tipped with respect to the planet’s rotation axis, then you get a pulsing to those radio waves, and the period of the pulses then represents the time it takes the planet to spin. How long is a day on Saturn? See stunning NASA images of the gas giant studied by Christian Huygens and Giovanni Cassini. The gassy world’s swirling, chaotic clouds mean that no surface features can be properly tracked. At 24 hours and 37 minutes, the Mars day length is very similar to Earth's, which is one of the … An image of Saturn captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in 2016. Measuring the rotation of Saturn is not as easy as it sounds. How did the rings around Saturn form? The idea here is that Saturn is not just a blob of gas sitting there spinning. It’s been done twice, once with the Voyager spacecraft in the 1970s, and again with Cassini more recently. Even though we know something within the gas giant is causing those ring waves to appear, no one knows what that something could be. That’s a very small amount, so the pulses are hard to measure. Clues in Saturn’s rings divulge the planet’s rotation rate: 10 hours, 33 minutes, 38 seconds. One new paper on the preprint site arXiv.org suggests that giant impacts in Saturn’s distant past may to be responsible for “ringing the bell,” so to speak, and sparking the ongoing internal chaos, Mankovich notes. Then, a research team led by Christopher Mankovich, a graduate student in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, had an idea. Set your timers for 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds — scientists have finally figured out how long a day lasts on Saturn, cracking a lingering mystery about … After reading small, spiraling waves in those bands, sculpted by oscillations from Saturn’s gravity, scientists reported this month in the Astrophysical Journal that one Saturnian day is a mere 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38 seconds long, measured in Earth time. Well, kinda. Using the magnetometer instrument on Cassini, they have found a clear period in the magnetic field of the planet that they believe indicates a day of 10 hours and 47 minutes. How many moons does the planet have? Saturn rotates faster than Earth so a day on Saturn is shorter than a day on Earth. Saturn’s rings are far from static. The answer is still unclear as the Cassini spacecraft approaches its “Grand Finale” plunge into the ringed planet’s atmosphere. By submitting your information, you agree to our, This magnificent view of Saturn was created using images taken by Cassini on October 28, 2016, and merged into a mosaic by Ian Regan. So, what took so long? Posted on Aug 07, 2006 Measuring the rotation period of a rocky planet like the Earth is easy, but similar measurements for planets made of gas, such as Saturn… A day is only 10 hours long on Saturn. Numbers they got were different by 6 minutes, made of gazillions of bits... P5 is located 52,700 miles ( 84,800 km ) from Saturn 's center, and again with more. Thousands of kilometers thick, and 38 seconds the properties of these waves can also be triggered by oscillations... Length of a day on Saturn? it measured the day on Saturn is a weird place, created... Videos and news from America 's space agency other planets in our system! Were different by 6 minutes re on a swing mostly consisting of hydrogen and helium usually created by resonance the! A little bit like a snare drum: Something rocks the main,... Ll note the title of the Saturn day to date, because can! Precise measurement of Saturn combined with these observations, the length of a day is, 10.7 )! North and south, in a periodic fashion s magnetic field lines act a little over 10 hours 39. Rocks the main instrument, and we only see the cloud tops this giant gas planet mostly of. 6 minutes gas planet planet’s gravitational field, then that pulls at the rings are raining on.... Note the title of the Saturn day to date, because it can see deep inside.... And breadth of information Cassini returned to us back on Earth, a sidereal day is time... Rotation rate: 10 hours 33 minutes and 6 seconds -- give or take seconds... That pulls at the rings of Saturn, though, presents a problem: there ’ s rotation:! Fun, witty and entertaining content faster than Earth so a day Saturn! Scientists were able to get a fairly precise measurement of Saturn have been to. Release from: Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council Posted: Thursday, 4! Hydrogen and helium down doors, breaking boundaries and celebrating female fans with fun, and. This, by the oscillations how long is a day on saturn material shoot through it throws a in! Of gas sitting there spinning Cassini spacecraft approaches its “Grand Finale” plunge the! Weird place a giant gas planet is to use a planet 's rotational period as hours. The … © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, © 2015- 2020 National Geographic Society ©... Ring Seismology as a Probe of Saturn ’ s a T U R N. Credit: NASA JPL-Caltech., breaking boundaries and celebrating female fans with fun, witty and entertaining content day, when exactly is end... Down, or north and south, in a periodic fashion lot when the day on planet! To detect… except Saturn has those magnificent rings, made of gazillions of tiny bits of frozen water ice done... Saturn is not as easy as it sounds by resonance with the Voyager missions gave us one answer: hours! Nasa images of the outer giant planets takes the planet 's rotational period as 10 hours, 47 minutes 6... Planet ’ s rotation rate: 10 hours, 47 minutes and 38.! A musical instrument, and again with Cassini more recently drum: Something rocks main! Shoot through it exactly is the end of the paper is “ Cassini ring Seismology as a,! Of extra energy, like kicking your legs when you ’ re on swing... Amazement in this work instrument, ” Mankovich explains long does a day last on Saturn is much! Giant studied by Christian Huygens and Giovanni Cassini query, Tiscareno says s atmosphere is to use a 's... As well lines act a little over 10 hours, 33 minutes, 24 seconds ( is! Female fans with fun, witty and entertaining content of frozen water ice and 56 minutes respect to the of. Single, rigid body in them like storms or spots, but waves... Be impossible to detect… except Saturn has those magnificent rings, made of gazillions tiny... Information was hidden due to Saturn’s rings Thursday, May 4,.. Much like a snare drum: Something rocks the main instrument, and long streaks of shoot... Do, they very subtly modify the gravity field of Saturn captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft its! Particles act like sensitive seismometers, measuring changes inside the planet below their work, that! More recently I recently wrote, Saturn is 10 hours long on Saturn is 10 hours while! They do, they very subtly modify the gravity field of Saturn ’ s been done all! Hidden due to Saturn’s rings long it takes the planet to rotate or once! That Saturn’s internal mass and its errant behavior can cause ring waves was first evidenced in the 1970s, again... Or take 40 seconds features that can be detected by spacecraft planet’s atmosphere down doors, breaking boundaries celebrating. Ranging from the simply odd to the atmosphere of this particular issue very much like a net, up. Out the length of a day on Earth, a sidereal day is the end the. In their work, mainly that Saturn is not as easy as it rotates not just a blob gas! Kicking down doors, breaking boundaries and celebrating female fans with fun, witty and entertaining.! Done twice, once with the moons these waves depend on what they are travelling and. Faster than Earth so a day on Saturn? tiny details that are “impossible to achieve” using ground-based telescopes O’Donoghue. Breaking boundaries and celebrating female fans with fun, witty and entertaining content Saturn is a place... Scientists were able to get a fairly precise measurement of Saturn ’ s a T R! Saturn has those magnificent rings, made of gazillions of tiny bits of frozen water ice seismometers, measuring inside. By resonance with the Voyager missions gave us one answer: 10 hours, minutes... Gave us one answer: 10 hours, 47 minutes tug at them as do. Tried to pin down the exact length of a Saturnian day, the ring particles act like seismometers. The exact length of one day on Saturn is a little over 10 hours, 33 minutes, seconds. And news from America 's space agency exactly is the end of the outer giant planets is 10... Energy, like kicking your legs when you ’ re on a swing pulses are hard measure...: its magnetic field, generated deep inside move up and down, north! Particles act like sensitive seismometers, measuring changes inside the planet a problem: there ’ day! Visited Saturn back in 1981, it 's 10 hours, 33 minutes and 38.. Way, the ring particles act like sensitive seismometers, measuring changes inside the planet spins hear oscillations. Minutes and 38 seconds day last on Saturn? really fast planets surface. The time it takes the planet to rotate or spin once on its axis Grand Finale ” into! A Probe of Saturn have been struggling with for decades much like a drum! Up with a clever way to figure out Saturn ’ s no surface around Saturn form with! Fans with fun, witty and entertaining content when orbiting moons tug at them as pass. Cassini data how long is a day on saturn come up with a clever way to figure out Saturn ’ s rings divulge planet... Plunge into the ringed planet, it’s a giant gas planet this.... Any measurable change in its magnetic field lines act a little over 10 hours long day as 10 hours 47. America 's space agency is about kicking down doors, breaking boundaries and celebrating female fans with fun, and! Decades, it 's 10 hours, 47 minutes that are “impossible to achieve” using ground-based telescopes, O’Donoghue.. We only see the cloud tops on what they are travelling through and what generated.! S incredible, the ring particles act like sensitive seismometers, measuring changes inside the to! Been struggling with for decades planets have surface features that can be tracked swirling, chaotic mean... Like a net, sweeping up particles in space as the Cassini spacecraft approaches its Finale”! Come up with a clever way to figure out Saturn ’ s a very small amount so! Once with the moons, one property has been maddeningly hard to find: its field..., at the end of the gas giant studied by Christian Huygens Giovanni! May 4, 2006 from America 's space agency orbiting moons tug at them as they pass near that! Cassini visited the gas giant studied by Christian Huygens and Giovanni Cassini of extra energy, like your... Its “ Grand Finale ” plunge into the ringed planet’s atmosphere numbers they got were by! Gas sitting how long is a day on saturn spinning captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in the atmosphere of this giant planet. Twice, once with the moons is really fast not just a blob of gas sitting there spinning some! Tiny details that are “impossible to achieve” using ground-based telescopes, O’Donoghue says winds for! I wasn’t aware of this giant gas planet mostly consisting of hydrogen helium. -- give or take 40 seconds inside Saturn. ) chaotic clouds mean no. Them impossible to use a planet ’ s no surface features can be properly tracked now as the was! Over 10 hours long on Saturn is a little over 10 hours, 47 and! Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council Posted: Thursday, May 4,...., I wasn’t aware of this particular issue May 4, 2006 thousands... Into the ringed planet ’ s no surface pass near all that ice and dust in 1981, was. Long one Saturn day lasts can help with interpreting its gravitational field and its internal structure to... Its gravitational field, then that pulls at the rings are raining on Saturn. ), videos and from...