Where are Saturn's permanent storms? List any special features.
North and South pole, hexagonal, looks (somewhat) like an eyeball.
100
Why should you be careful around cryovolcanoes?
You could freeze.
100
What is Saturn mostly made of?
Hydrogen and helium.
100
What surface feature do ONLY Titan and Earth share?
Bodies of liquid on the surface.
200
What are Saturn's rings made of? What size?
Dust/ice particles. They range in size from fine grained dust to apartment sized boulders.
200
Saturn appears peaceful to the outside observer, why? Where else do we see this in the solar system?
High levels of ammonia in upper atmosphere creates opaque cloud cover. Venus possesses this same feature.
200
What kind of probe would be best for exploring Titan? Why?
Robotic balloon, the terrain is too rough and volatile on Titan for rovers.
200
What is Titan's atmosphere mostly made of? How thick?
Dense nitrogen-rich atmosphere, twice as thick as Earth's atmosphere.
200
How did Titan become a moon?
Titan formed from debris (ice, dust) all being held together by gravity and became trapped in Saturn's gravitional pull
300
What did Cassini discover about Saturn's rings?
They were grooved, not smooth like originally thought.
300
Relative to Earth, how large can thunderstorms get on Saturn?
As large as the entire Earth.
300
What type of protection would you need if you wanted to walk around on Titan?
Thermal protection and oxygen.
300
How much sunlight does Titan receive?
1% the amount that Earth gets.
300
Why did scientists suspect that there may be volcanoes on Titan?
There is not enough surface methane to account for all the methane in the atmosphere, there must be something else releasing methane.
400
Relative to Earth, how wide are Saturn's rings?
As wide as the distance from Earth to the Moon.
400
Explain all geological processes that occur on Titan.
Methane erosion, wind erosion, tectonic activity.
400
How did scientists confirm the presence of liquid on Titan's surface during a fly-by mission?
They observed reflections on Titan's surface, confirming the presence of a body of liquid.
400
How are Earth, Venus and Titan similiar?
All three have thick atmospheres and solid surfaces.
400
Titan is VERY cold, but how does it keep what little heat it does have?
Methane in the atmosphere is a green house gas and it traps the heat and keeps in it. This is the green house effect.
500
How did Saturn's E-ring form?
Enceladus spews out gas and ice particles in it's orbit, this became the E-ring.
500
What impact do Saturn's rings have on Saturn's seasons?
The rings block out the nothern hemisphere for half of the year and the southern hemisphere the other half.
500
Why would astronauts explore Enceladus for life before places like Europa and Mars? Give TWO reasons.
1. Not as much radiation around Saturn, much safer for humans
2. Because Enceladus releases liquid into space, no drilling required.
500
How are Europa and Enceladus similar?
Both have a warm water layer under a solid ice layer heated by stretch and pull of the moon.
500
Explain the Roche limit. Is the boundary the same for all planets/moons?
-The smallest distance at which a natural satellite can orbit a celestial body without being torn apart by a larger body's gravitational force.
-No. The distance depends on the density of the two bodies and the orbit of the satellite.