A couple of years ago, a then 15-year-old boy from Seaford, East Sussex, was able to snap a clear shot of Saturn with his own telescope in his backyard.
Teenage Civilian Astronomer Uses Personal Telescope To Snap Clear Shot of Saturn
A 15-year-old boy has managed to capture a picture of Saturn using a telescope in his back garden that many seasoned... Posted by Science & Astronomy on Sunday, February 26, 2023
According to the Space Academy, Marcus Reed used his reflector telescope, with a diameter of 102 mm, to snap the shot. Reed reportedly stayed awake until 4 a.m., and used the Sky Guide app on his iPhone to identify Saturn in the sky.
The keen civilian astronomer explained that he took the shot at 4 a.m. He opened the app and saw that the planet was visible. After realizing this, he put on his slippers and ran downstairs to set up his telescope in his backyard. He was surprised by how clear his shot was, as reported before by the Daily Mail.
Reed has reportedly been interested in photography and astronomy for a while. Back then, he used his telescope during every clear evening.
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Saturn: the Solar System's Sixth Planet
The huge gas giant is the solar system's sixth planet and is also the second largest one in the entire solar system. Astrophysicists have been observing the planet since early periods.
Similar to Jupiter, Saturn is a huge gas giant that mostly comprises helium and hydrogen.
Saturn is a particularly distinct and unique planet. NASA reports that, while it is not the only planet that has its own rings, none of them are as complicated and spectacular as Saturn's. Its rings comprise chunks of rock and ice.
Saturn's Rings
The National Geographic reports that, at a certain point in the last 4.5 billion years, Saturn got surrounded by an icy, bright, and big ring system. However, scientists still do not agree on when these rings formed. The origins of this planet's iconic rings remain a mystery.
Maryame El Moutamid, an astrophysicist from Cornell University, says that, while the planet came to be at a certain point during the solar system's formation, they do not know if the ring system formed along with the planet or if it resulted much later. El Moutamid adds that the reason this is intriguing is that there is a planet, moon system, and ring system. They think that there must be a link between the moons and the rings.
Jeff Cuzzi, who is from the Ames Research Center at NASA, says that the rings of the gas giant are quite unique. They are the only huge and unusually bright rings. For these reasons, the ring system of Saturn has remained puzzling.
Scientists who ponder on this issue usually have either of the two stances. The first one suggests that the rings are primordial, which means that they came to be as the planet formed over four billion years ago. The second one holds that the rings are younger compared to the actual planet.
El Moutamid mentions that both notions have great arguments. However, they also have weaknesses.
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