[ad_1]
An interconnected system
Within the years following the top of the Cassini mission, scientists have come to understand that it’s not possible to think about any a part of the Saturn system by itself.
“It is an actual interconnected system the place all the things interacts with all the things else,” stated Matthew Hedman, an affiliate professor of physics on the College of Idaho who was a Cassini collaborating scientist.
Hedman revealed knowledge that helped resolve a longstanding thriller about Saturn: How lengthy is a day on the ringed planet?
On a terrestrial planet like Earth, this query could be answered by watching landforms make a lap across the planet. Since gasoline giants like Jupiter and Saturn haven’t any landforms, another solution to decide the size of a day is by monitoring how lengthy it takes one of many planet’s magnetic discipline poles to journey across the planet.
Sadly, that doesn’t work on Saturn as a result of the magnetic discipline pole is aligned nearly completely with the planet’s rotation axis, that means the magnetic pole hardly strikes in any respect.
So scientists tried one thing completely different: They discovered that Saturn’s inside vibrates like a bell, creating variations in its gravitational discipline. These variations present up as waves within the planet’s rings. By monitoring these waves, scientists have been capable of decide {that a} Saturn day lasts 10 hours, 33 minutes, and 38 seconds.
Learning the frequency of the ring waves might also yield clues about Saturn’s inside, together with what its core is like.
“If the planet’s extra centrally condensed, it rings at one frequency. If its middle is puffier, it rings at different frequencies,” Hedman stated.
[ad_2]
