BRENT: Researchers are trying to examine exact rotation speed of Saturn through its atmosphere. Up till now, they have discovered that Saturn’s days are comparatively shorter than days of our solar system. According to astronomers, the total time duration of one rotation is around 6 minutes. Six minutes sound pretty ignorable difference for a lay person. However, it can significantly affect the notion of ring atmosphere of Saturn. Generally, rotation time period is considered as one of the fundamental characteristics of a planet.
Measuring the length of a day on a planet doesn’t seem like it should be particularly hard. If, for example, you were watching Earth from space and saw Los Angeles you could hit the “start” button on your stopwatch. When Los Angeles rolls around again, you hit the “stop” button and that is one day.
tricker. Jupiter and Saturn lack measurable solid surfaces and are covered by thick layers of swirling, churning clouds.
Saturn, in particular, poses a challenge. Different parts of the planet rotate at different speeds but its axis and poles are aligned.
Given the difficulty level, scientists have done a pretty good job of measuring Saturn’s day based on data from the Voyager 2 and Cassini space probes.
Now, Dr. Ravit Helled of the Department of Geosciences at Tel Aviv University thinks he has come up with an accurate way to measure a day on Saturn. His method, detailed in the journal Nature, is based on Saturn’s gravitational field and the fact that it’s north-south axis is longer than it’s east-west axis.
By applying this new method, Helled along with Drs. Eli Galanti and Yohai Kaspi of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the Weizmann Institute of Science, measured the day at 10 hours, 32 minutes and 44 seconds.
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