SATURN

                                      Saturn is a planet of breath-taking beauty. It's unique and amazing feature of rings, makes it the most beautiful planet in our solar system. These rings, thousands of kilometres across, but hardly 15 km. Thick, are not solid: they are made up of rocks, dust and ice pieces of all sizes.
                                       Some scientists say that the ring are remains of an ancient moon that blew up when it came too close to Saturn. Unlike Jupiter, which has fascinating surface features, Saturn is a remarakably featureless planet. Except for a few bands, you cannot see too many surface details. Saturn is a planet of violent storms. Winds blow at the incredible speed of 1700 km. per hour.
                                       Though it is 95 times heavier than earth, Saturn's density is so low that it would easily float in an ocean of water! Saturn is not round. it is oblate: it's polar diameter is less by 12,500 km. than it's equatorial diameter.
                                       Of Saturn's twenty moons (scientists believe there may be many more), Titan is the most interesting. From it's blue sky, you can tell that Titan has a fairly thick atmosphere. The voyager spacecraft has found chemical substances which could possibly give rise to life on Titan. Scientists feel that when man learns how to colonise other worlds, Titan will be one of his first colonies, because, except for it's low temperature, it has most of the wherewithal to support our kind of life.

Saturn

ASTEROIDS

                The large gap between Mars and Jupiter had puzzled astronomers for many years. For according to their calculations, a planet ought to have existed in this region.
                On January 1, 1801, the Italian astronomer, Guiseppe Piazzi, discovered a small planet in that large gap. He observed it for a few days and thought it to be the missing planet. It was named Ceres. However, Ceres was so small (less than 1300 km across), that astronomers began to wonder if it was a plannet at all!
                When further scrutiny of the sky in that region revealed more "little planets". Astronomers began calling them Asteroids, collectively. Today, they are also called Planetoids. Pallas, Juno and Vesta (the brightest asteroid which, on clear nights, can be seen without a telescope), were discovered soon after Ceres. Ever since, at least 40,000 asteroids have been found orbiting the sun in the yawning gap between Mars and Jupiter.
                 The origin of asteroids is shrouded in mystery. Some scientists think that they are the remains of an ancient planet that blew up for some reason. Others say that they are parts of a planet which never formed.
                 Few asteroids are as big as Ceres and Vesta. Most of them are only a few kilometres across. Because of their small size, their weak gravity has not been able to pull those bodies in a neat ball shape. that's why they're not spherical like the planets.
                 Scientists think that in the distant future, man will be able to use material from asteroids to build space colonies!

Asteroids