Recently, experts discovered that Saturn's magnetic field is influenced by the planet's own substantial rain composed of helium. John Hopkins University experts have released a study that shows a complicated but stunning simulation of the planet's process of creating its unique magnetic field, Slash Gear reports.
John Hopkins created a model of Saturn's interior. The structure of the planet shows lower temperatures within high latitudes covering the layer of helium rain. Entitled "Recipe for a Saturn‐Like Dynamo," the study was published on AGUPubs.
Even though it is difficult, researchers are able to develop a structure of the gaseous planet. Saturn, in one of many planets that are categorized as a "gas giant," is challenging to analyze and observe due to hidden areas and unique compositions.
Sabine Stanley, one of the co-authors of the research and a fellow planetary physicist at John Hopkins, said that Saturn will be beneficial to study other planets similar to it. Through Saturn's unique formation over time, we will harvest a lot of information about gaseous planets that belong in our solar system. With the planet's help, we will also understand the gas giants which are beyond our reach.
Saturn's Properties, Revisioned
What puts the planet Saturn above the rest in our solar system is its own magnetic field, which perfectly fits the surrounding rotation axis. The correlation of the planet's magnetic field and weather conditions and was initially observed with the late Cassini spacecraft.
Aside from the significance of helium rain, experts revisioned many of Saturn's properties. Over the years, scientists believe that the core of Saturn is made of rock and ice chunks. But recent studies find that pure solidity is not prevalent on the core.
Saturn's core is made up of scattered gas, including a massive collection of hydrogen and helium. According to Science News, the core spans 70,000 kilometers, taking up almost 60 percent of Saturn's diameter.
Aside from 17 Earthly rock and ice masses, 55 Earth masses of hydrogen and helium are mixed into the core of Saturn. Overall, it exceeds the mass of the planet's total mass -- a whopping 95 Earth mass.
University of Zurich planetary scientist Revit Helled emphasized that Saturn's revised information will be a big step to understand more about many of the giant exoplanets. This also leaves more clues and opens new opportunities to structures of other planets in our solar system which might have been different from what we thought.
Saturn's Origins
The recent discoveries may add to how Saturn was originally formed, according to the German Aerospace Center's planetary scientist Nadine Nettelmann. Like the theories of completely fuzzy core, Saturn has many makeups that will change soon, such as its origin.
One of the earlier theories suggests that gas planets, including Saturn, become apparent as orbiting rock and ice chunks orbiting the sun collides. After this scene, a tiny amount of gasses mix with the solid matters, materializing a core.
The old theories suggest the helium and hydrogen gases were pulled to the center of Saturn's core due to the strong gravity the planet exhibits. What's more, is that because of the gravity of the planet, these gases have been compressed and crushed, transforming into fluid-like materials, as reported by Space.
Because of the recent discoveries, the theories of Saturn's origin changed. Instead of pure rock and ice, gasses were always had been part of the core since the planet was formed 4.6 billion years ago. The presence of rocks and ice in the core was only due to the age of the planet, and as time pass by, the solid fragments were being exerted to the edge of the core.
The new theory implies that the planet is still developing up to this moment. After forming, Saturn has undergone extreme heat, cooled off, and retained its form.
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