What is Hyperion moon and what are its features?



When we think about moons – natural satellites that orbit planets, dwarf planets and asteroids – the picture that we generally conceive is one of a spherical astronomical body that goes around another. This, perhaps, is due to our close association with Earth’s moon, as we see it wane and wax on a continuous basis. Moons, however, come in all shapes and sizes. Hyperion – one of Saturn’s satellites – is the largest such non-spherical moon among more than 200 moons that are in the solar system.



Hyperion was discovered in September 1848, both by English astronomer William Lassell and American astronomers, father-son duo William Cranch Bond and George Phillips Bond, independently of the other. While some accounts suggest that both the Englishman and the Americans made the discovery on September 19, others mention that they made the discovery days within each other around that time. What is certain, however, is that all three men are credited as the discoverers of Hyperion.



God of watchfulness



Hyperion’s discovery came at a time when English astronomer John Herschel had suggested that Saturn’s satellites be named after Titans from Greek Mythology. Hyperion, the name chosen for this moon of Saturn, corresponded to the Greek god of watchfulness and observation.



As a potato-shaped satellite, Hyperion differs from most others in that it isn’t spherical. This means that its shape is better described in terms of its diameter along its three axes and it works out to be 410 x 260 x 220 km. Scientists believe that its odd shape could be the result of a major impact on a large, spherical moon, and that Hyperion could be the remnant of that strike.



In resonance with Titan



Orbiting Saturn at a mean distance of 1.5 million km, it is one of Saturn’s few major moons that doesn’t have one face perpetually turned towards the planet, as it rotates chaotically. While it takes a little over 21 Earth days to orbit Saturn, it tumbles and spins unpredictably roughly every 13 Earth days.



The rotation is also influenced by Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Titan, which orbits Saturn at a mean distance of 1.22 million km, goes around Saturn four times for every three of Hyperion. This puts their orbits in a dynamic 4:3 resonance, making the two moons zip faster and slower as they move past each other. As Titan is a much more massive body, its gravitational tugs considerably alter Hyperion’s orbit and rotation, adding to its eccentricity.



Heavily cratered



Even though Hyperion’s exact composition is still a mystery, it is known that it is slightly more than half as dense as water. Water ice with gaps, or porosity, as well as frozen methane or carbon dioxide could make up Hyperion. Such a make-up would make Hyperion akin to a large rubble pile, consistent with the idea of the satellite not having enough gravity to compact the smaller ice and rock bodies drawn together.



Hyperion’s sponge-like appearance stems from its heavily cratered surface. While these craters are deep, they do not show significant signs of rays of ejecta, resulting in its rather unique look. There are theories that the moon’s low density, coupled with high porosity, would crater more by compression, as opposed to the usual excavation.



The Cassini-Huygens mission saw the Cassini spacecraft make a number of flybys of Hyperion for over a decade, starting in 2004. The mission helped scientists realise that the satellite does build up static charge like the Earth’s moon, as Cassini passed through a beam of electrons coming from the moon’s surface. While the mission enabled us to see the satellite in more stunning detail than ever before, there is still plenty to know and learn about this tumbling, sponge-like moon.



 



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The Ice King of the past



What do you do when you want to quench your thirst or satiate your craving to have something cold? You will probably order in some ice cream or cold drinks, or walk up to the nearest store that offers the same. Better still, you might just mix something up at home with your parents and top it up with some fresh ice cubes from your refrigerator.



But before there were refrigerators and freezers, how exactly did people access ice? Agreed, the cold climes bestowed certain places with ice naturally. But what about countries like India, that have predominantly hot weather? It might be hard to imagine now, but ice was considered a luxury product even about two hundred years ago.



The melting problem



The man who thought about this and made ice a more accessible item was American entrepreneur Frederic Tudor. Born in 1783, Tudor went on to show that ice could be marketed and sold, despite the obvious challenges that had to be surmounted.



The idea came to him as a 22-year-old when his brother William remarked that they should harvest ice from their pond in New England and sell it in the Caribbean ports. The thought was so simple, yet remarkable, that Frederic immediately fell in love with it and began working on it.



Hay and sawdust



The problem of tackling melting ice was a big one. Even though Tudor was mocked at for pursuing this idea, he ploughed on, relentlessly. When he couldn’t find any takers to ship his ice, he bought his own brig and went about the task. The ice was packed in hay and even though they survived the voyage, Tudor’s first few journeys were a net loss as the places he shipped them to lacked ice-houses.



Learning from his experience, Tudor ensured that ice-houses were built at locations where the ice was harvested at and also at the ports where they were shipped to. There were also technical learnings along the way as he realised that the use of sawdust instead of hay minimised melting.



Wyeth’s cutter



Tudor started enjoying success, but the true turning point came when he teamed up with one of his suppliers, American inventor Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth. Wyeth contributed greatly to the ice industry and made it possible for Boston to harvest and sell its ice internationally.



The device that enabled this was a two-bladed horse-drawn ice cutter. Using this, they could convert ice sheets into a grid of blocks (think of a chess board) and these blocks could then be easily pried out with the help of iron bars.



Wyeth’s invention had two-fold advantages mainly. The cumbersome process of harvesting ice using chisels and saws was no longer needed, thus enabling mass production. Secondly, the resulting ice blocks, akin to the giant ice cubes we see even today, allowed for tighter packing during transportation, minimising melting further.



India, the biggest market



One of the greatest tests to Tudor and Wyeth came when the Tudor Ice Company decided to make a shipment to Calcutta in 1833. The insulated hold of the sailing ship Tuscany took in nearly 180 tonnes of freshwater ice in Boston and started its four-month journey in May that year. On September 13, 1833, the consignment reached Calcutta, and even though there were losses, the voyage was largely a success. The crystal-clear ice created ripples across the country and within no time India became one of the biggest markets for Tudor.



Tudor made it abundantly clear that there was a market for his product and by mass-producing it he was able to sell it across the world. He earned the nickname Ice King and his company dominated the industry in the decades that followed.



By the time Tudor died aged 80 in 1864, he was a millionaire and the natural ice industry was at its peak. The advent of refrigerators and freezers, coupled with the manufacture of synthetic or artificial ice, meant that the need to ship natural ice eventually diminished by the end of the 19th Century. The Ice King, however, transformed frozen water from a luxury good to a necessity – one that could not only cool drinks and dishes, but also preserve food and help out in medications.



 



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Couney and the carnival babies



Do you know what the meaning of pre-term birth is? A human child birth that occurs before the 37th week of pregnancy is referred to this way. While a full-term pregnancy normally lasts 40 weeks, not all children are born that way. Premature babies – babies born pre-term – often need longer and more intense nursery care. While this is the norm now with Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU), it wasn’t always the case. We have Martin Couney, a pioneer of early neonatal technology, to thank for that.



A little history before we take a look at what Couney did. By the end of the 19th Century, it was pretty clear to doctors that babies born pre-term needed extra care and often had complications. Incubators had been built and the first one to care for an infant was operational in 1888. On September 7 that year, Edith Eleanor McLean became one of the first babies to be placed in an incubator in a hospital in New York. These incubators, however, were seen more as medical curiosities and not much was done in terms of adoption.



First encounter



In that same year, French physician Pierre Budin, who had been wondering why more hospitals weren’t investing in incubators, began experimenting with the technology. Facing financial difficulties in terms of funding, Budin decided to display his incubators at the Berlin’s World Fair in 1896.



It was at this fair that Couney, Budin's protege, was drawn towards what was to become a lifetime’s obsession. Budin’s display included premature babies acquired on loan from a hospital and Couney immediately realised that it would work. He was certain that the public would pay to see babies in incubators and that he would in turn be able to save the babies’ lives.



Couney travelled with his ideas to the U.S. and put it into practice. He picked the right place to serve as America was severely lagging behind European nations, which had France at the forefront, in neonatal care. He married Annabelle Segner, one of his nurses, in 1903 and his commitment to the cause was furthered when they had a pre-term daughter in 1907. Hildegarde, who was six week premature and weighed just 1.36 kg at birth, later joined her father’s business after training as a nurse.



Couney’s magic at Coney



If we had visited Coney Islands during the turn of the 20th Century, we would have been spoilt for choice. We could have tried out a roller-coaster, witnessed the re-enactment of the Boer War or simply waded in the water while eating an ice cream. Yet, one of the most popular permanent exhibits was Couney's facility.



With signs so large they could be seen from the other end of the island, Couney's facility played host to a life-and-death exercise. People, however, were willing to witness this freak show as they paid the 25-cent entrance fee to see the display of premature babies placed in incubators. A guard rail prevented over-enthusiastic visitors from getting too close.



The entrance fee allowed Couney to cover all his costs as he went about his task admirably. At a time when hospitals across the country were turning away from their responsibility of caring for premature babies, Couney welcomed them with open arms.



The incubator doctor



He not only hired the best doctors and nurses to take care of the babies, but he also accepted babies from all backgrounds. He never once saw their colour or class, nor did he ever accept payments from parents. Distressed, desperate parents were soon flocking to “the incubator doctor”, who then worked his magic.



Despite the fact that Couney wasn’t a trained medical practitioner, his methods started gaining traction. His facility in Coney Islands ran from 1903-1943 and he was able to replicate his success in other facilities he established as well.



Even though doctors were sceptical about Couney’s ways and even tried to discredit him, there was no denying that it was working. While there is no way to authenticate the numbers, there is reason to believe that Couney took in around 8,000 babies during the course of his career and was able to save about 6,500 of them. By the 1940s, neonatal care started becoming mainstream.



Incubators have come a long way since the time Couney had to showcase babies in them in carnivals. NICUs are now state-of-the-art in many hospitals, providing exclusive care for babies. Incubators these days protect preterm babies from infections, excessive noise or light. They also provide automatic adjustments based on the baby’s temperature and photo-therapy using special lights to treat neonatal jaundice, which is becoming increasingly common. And it all started with one man who believed he could make a difference.



 



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Scientists discover lion species that roamed Australia 23 million years ago



Paleontologists have revealed a new species of marsupial lion in Australia. The now-extinct species, Lekaneleo roskellyae or Leo, once roamed the Riversleigh area in the north-west highlands of Queensland over 23 million years ago. It is one of the smallest lions ever discovered, and was about the size of a domestic cat.



Paleontologists from the University of New South Wales discovered the remains of the small lion at the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, where scientists have been finding fossils for decades.



Despite its small size, Leo would have been feared by other animals in the Riversleigh ancient rainforest. It had elongated, ‘bolt-cutting’ premolar teeth that were capable of easily slicing through the bones of its prey. This is the most extraordinary adaptation or evolution that a carnivorous mammal has ever developed anywhere in the world.



Marsupial lions died out 35,000 years ago, and are not closely related to modern lions that roam Africa or the endangered Asiatic lion in India.



 



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First-ever animal that doesn’t need oxygen to survive found



Scientists have discovered an animal that does not need oxygen to produce energy needed for its survival. The tiny, less than 10-celled parasite, Henneguya salminicola, lives in salmon muscle. As it evolved, the animal, a relative of jellyfish and corals, gave up breathing and consuming oxygen – or became anaerobic – to produce energy.



Mitochondria, a.k.a. the powerhouses of the cell, capture oxygen to make energy through aerobic respiration – but researchers found that H. salminicola lacks mitochondrial genes. Salmon muscle is a low-oxygen environment, making the ability to breathe oxygen useless to the organism. “Living in an oxygen-free environment, it has shed unnecessary genes responsible for aerobic respiration and became an even simpler organism,” said Prof. Dorothee Huchon from Tel Aviv University (TAU) in Israel. “Our discovery shows that evolution can go in strange directions. Aerobic respiration is a major source of energy, and yet we found an animal that gave up this critical pathway.”



 



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Earth captures new ‘mini moon’ the size of a car



Earth has acquired a second ‘mini-moon’ about the size of a car, according to astronomers who spotted the object circling our planet. The mass – roughly 6-11 feet in diameter – was observed by researchers Kacper Wierzchos and Teddy Pruyne at the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona (U.S.).



This is the second asteroid known to orbit Earth. The only other asteroid, 2006 RHI20, rotated around Earth from September 2006 to June 2007.



The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Minor Planet Center, which collects data on minor planets and asteroids, said “no link to a known artificial object has been found,” implying it was likely an asteroid captured by Earth’s gravity.



Earth’s new neighbor is not in a stable orbit around the planet and is unlikely to be around for very long. It is already heading away from the Earth-moon system, and was likely to escape in April.



 



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What are Asteroids?


ASTEROIDS



Asteroids are small, mostly rocky, irregular-shaped bodies. They are found orbiting the Sun in a band filling the 550-million-kilometre gap between Mars and Jupiter. The largest, Ceres, measures just under 1000 kilometres across, but only a handful have diameters greater than 100 kilometres. About 4000 have been recorded, but there are many thousands more too small to be identified.



Astronomers believe that, during the formation of the Solar System, Jupiter’s strong gravitational pull caused nearby planetesimals to smash into one another rather than build up into another planet. This left the belt of fragments we call the asteroids.



The asteroids have continued to collide with one another since their formation, producing smaller fragments called meteoroids. These have occasionally crashed on to Earth’s surface (when they are known as meteorites). It is feared that one day a large meteorite may devastate Earth, causing climatic change sufficient to wipe out many life-forms.



            Most asteroids are rocky, indicating they come from the outer layers of a former minor planet. But some are metallic – they come from the core of such a planet.



            A close-up view of the irregular shaped objects that make up the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. From study of asteroid fragments that have fallen to Earth, scientists have dated the age of the Solar System to 4.6 million years ago.




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What are comets?

COMETS



Comets are potato-shaped lumps of dust measuring only a few kilometres across, but accompanied by (when near the Sun) tails of has or dust that stretch for hundreds of millions of kilometres across space. The lump of dust is fused together by frozen gases and water ice. Like all other objects in the Solar System, comets orbit the Sun, although their orbits are often very elliptical (elongated ovals), looping in towards the Sun from distant reaches of the Solar System. When a comet approaches the Sun, part of its ices melt and the gas and dust escape, forming a surrounding cloud, or coma. As it rounds the Sun, the coma is swept back into two tails, a straight gas tail and a broader, curved dust tail, always pointing away from the Sun.



Sometimes, small pieces of debris break off from comets. Great showers of these fragments, called meteors, sometimes come quite close to Earth. Millions of tiny particles burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Commonly known as shooting stars, they appear to us as split-second streaks of light in the night sky.



FAMOUS COMETS



The English astronomer Edmund Halley (1656-1742) was the first to realise that comets were orbiting objects. He once made a famous prediction: a comet that he observed in 1682 would return to the skies in 1758. Halley believed that comets recorded in 1531 and 1607 were simply earlier sightings of the one he saw in 1682. Halley did not live to see his prediction come true. Halley’s Comet, as it has been known ever since, was duly sighted on Christmas Day 1758 and has reappeared every 75 to 76 years. When Halley’s Comet appeared in March 1986, the space probe Giotto flew within 600 kilometres of it, sending back pictures and sampling the gases and dust particles given off by it.



A sighting of a comet is always a great event. The 1997 appearance of Comet Hale-Bopp was the most spectacular of recent years. Comets can also be destructive if they pass too close to a planet. In July 1994, drawn in by gravity, fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy smashed into Jupiter, creating massive fireballs on impact.



            On 30th June 1908 there was a huge explosion in the Tunguska region of Siberia, Russia. Trees in an area about 100 km across were felled by the blast, but no crater was found. The Tunguska fireball may have been a comet exploding at an altitude of about 6 km.




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Do we have some more Moons also, other than Earth’s natural satellite?


MOONS



Moons, also known as satellites, are relatively small worlds that orbit the planets of the Solar System. Earth has one moon, known simply as the Moon, but other planets have many more - Saturn, for example, has at least 18 moons. Moons are very varied in size and form. Many have unusual landscape features that intrigue astronomers.



Moons are created in different ways. Some are the result of fragments of rock or ice being pulled together by gravity to form a globe. Others are asteroids that have been “captured” by a planet’s gravitational force.



All seven of the moons illustrated here larger than the smallest planet, Pluto, while the largest moons, Ganymede and Titan, are even bigger than Mercury, the second smallest planet. Jupiter’s four largest moons are all in the top seven. They are called the “Galileans” after the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei who first discovered them with one of the first telescopes in 1610. Ganymede has an icy surface with cratered plains and areas showing strange “grooved” patterns.



Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is the only moon to have a thick atmosphere, made mainly of nitrogen. Beneath its continuous cloud layer, there may be a sea of methane.



Callisto, Jupiter’s second largest moon, is heavily cratered. Measuring 600 kilometres across, its most prominent crater, called Valhalla, is surrounded by a series of ripples. Io, the third of Jupiter’s Galileans, with its crust a vivid mixture of yellows, oranges, reds and blacks, looks a little like a pizza. In fact it is peppered with active volcanoes and lakes of molten rock.



Our own Moon is the fifth largest moon in the Solar System, although it would take 81 Moons to make up a world the size of Earth. The Moon’s lava plains indicate past volcanic activity, but there are no active volcanoes there today.



Next in order of size comes Europa, the fourth Galilean and an object of great interest amongst astronomers. Looking like a cracked egg, its surface consists of ice sheets that are continually melting and re-solidifying. It is by no means impossible that, beneath those ice sheets, there is a warm ocean of liquid water. Could it be that life has also evolved on Europa and that there are life-forms swimming in its oceans? Future space probe missions may find out.



Triton is Neptune’s largest moon. Its surface is the coldest place known in the Solar System. At -235°C, the temperature is low enough to freeze nitrogen. Triton was photographed in stunning detail by Voyager 2, the last of its close encounters, in 1989.



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Will you add some facts about Planet Pluto in my knowledge Bank?

PLUTO



Pluto is the smallest, coldest and outermost planet in the Solar System. It was the last to be discovered, identified in 1930 by the American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh. He compared photographs of part of the sky taken six days apart and noticed that a pinprick of light had moved slightly against the background of stars. Pluto was the only outer planet not visited by Voyager 2, so astronomers still know little about it. Some even propose that Pluto is really a comet and not a planet at all.



Pluto has a very elongated orbit, ranging between 7400 and 4400 million kilometres from the Sun, bringing it inside the orbit of Neptune for part of the journey. Pluto’s moon, Charon, is just over half its size and lies only 19,640 kilometres away from it. Both spin in a direction opposite to that of the other planets except Venus.



Pluto is denser than the icy moons of Uranus and Neptune, suggesting that it has relatively large, rocky core.



Pluto’s surface is probably an “icescape” of frozen nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane. There may be craters made by collisions with rock and ice fragments. Seen from Pluto, the Sun looks no more than a bright, distant star. It still provides just enough heat to evaporate some of the surface frost and create an extremely thin atmosphere. Charon, Pluto’s nearby moon, features prominently in the sky.



Thousands of icy objects may exist in the outer reaches of the Solar System. They may form either a belt or a cloud. This could be the birthplace of comets.



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Will you add some facts about Planet Neptune in my knowledge Bank?

NEPTUNE



Neptune was discovered by German astronomer Johann Galle in 1846. Its largest moon, Triton, was recorded a few days later. Besides that, very little was known about Neptune until the space probe Voyager 2 visited it in 1989.



A bright blue globe, Neptune almost completely lacks surface features. At the time it was photographed by Voyager, a storm system, called the Great Dark Spot (which later disappeared), could be seen racing in a direction opposite to the planet’s rotation. Winds on Neptune blow at more than 2000 kilometres per hour.



Like the other gas giants, Neptune has a system of rings. There are four extremely faint rings, composed of dark, icy fragments.



VOYAGER 2



The greatest journey by a space probe so far undertaken was made by Voyager 2. Between 1979 and 1989, it flew close by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, transmitting superbly clear pictures of the planets and their moons. Voyager has since sped away from the Solar System, although it continues to send back signals - 20 billion times weaker than those of a watch battery!



Voyager is playing its part in the search for life in other solar systems. Should aliens ever come across the space probe they will find an audiovisual disc on board. If they play it, they will hear, among other things, the sounds of whales, baby crying and greetings in 55 languages.



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Will you add some facts about Planet Uranus in my knowledge Bank?


URANUS



Uranus was discovered in 1781 by William Herschel, an amateur German astronomer living in England. More recently, astronomers found that Uranus is tilted 98° from the vertical, meaning that it orbits the Sun almost on its side. So for much of the 84-year-long journey, both poles face long periods of continuous daylight, followed by continuous night.



            Uranus’ relatively small, rocky core is surrounded by a slushy ocean of water with some ammonia. Its thick atmosphere is composed mainly of hydrogen.



            Uranus has a family of 11 faint rings, none more than 10 km wide, each made up of pitch-black blocks, measuring only a few metres deep. They circle Uranus’ equator.



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Will you add some facts about Planet Mars in my knowledge Bank?


MARS



Although Mars is much smaller than Earth, the two planets have a number of similarities. The Martian day is only a little longer than ours and its angle of tilt means that Mars has four seasons, just as we do on Earth. Daytime temperatures at the equator in midsummer can sometimes reach 25°C. Thin clouds of water vapour or early morning surface frosts can also sometimes be seen. Like Earth, Mars has volcanoes, mountains, dried-up river beds, canyons, deserts and polar icecaps.



For these reasons, Mars is thought to be the only other planet where life may once have existed. However, analysis of the Martian soil by space probes Viking 1 and 2, which touched down on the planet in 1976, and Pathfinder in 1997, failed to find any sign of past or present life.



Mars is a barren planet. Its reddish colour comes from iron oxide dust (similar to rust). From time to time, large dark regions appear on the surface. These are areas of bare rock, exposed when storms remove the dusty covering. The Martian landscape features some dramatic landforms. The Solar System’s highest mountains and its deepest canyon, Valles Marineris, are found on Mars.



Mars has quite a low density and a very weak magnetic field. This suggests that it has only a relatively small ball of iron at its core.



 A number of valleys and channels have been carved into the Martian plains. From the evidence of sediments – muds and silts deposited by water – it seems likely that there were once rivers, lakes and even seas on Mars. The only water left on the surface today is frozen in the polar icecaps. The rest may have been lost to space due to Mar’s weak gravity, or hidden from view as a deep-frozen layer beneath the surface.



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Will you add some facts about Planet Moon in my knowledge Bank?


MOON



The moon is neither a star nor a planet. It is a ball of rock that travels around Earth, taking about 27 days to complete the circle. It is the brightest object in the night sky, although the light it “shines” is reflected from the Sun.



The Moon may have formed when a large object or planetesimal collided with the newly-formed Earth more than four billion years ago. The impact “splashed” into space vast amounts of debris that later came together to form the Moon.



            A completely barren world, the Moon’s surface consists of cratered highlands and wide plains. The Moon’s internal structure is similar to Earth’s; its crust is thicker and not divided into tectonic plates.



            With neither air nor liquid water, it is impossible for plants or animals to live on the Moon. The barren lunar landscape is pitted with craters, blasted out by meteorites crashing to its surface. Scattered debris has left streaks radiating from some craters. The Moon also has wide, smooth lava plains. Early astronomers thought these were seas. They are still called by the Latin name for sea, mare.



PHASES OF THE MOON



The shape of the Moon appears to change from one night to the next. This happens because, as it travels round Earth, it spins only once, so the same face remains pointed towards us at all times. It is our view of the sunlit part that changes. When the face pointed towards us is turned away from the Sun, we cannot see the Moon at all: a New Moon (1).When it is turned towards the Sun, we see a complete disc: a Full Moon (5). In between, it passes through crescent (2), quarter (3) and gibbous (4) phases, and back again (6-8).



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Will you add some facts about Planet Saturn in my knowledge Bank?


SATURN



All four gas giants have rings, but Saturn’s, visible from Earth through even a small telescope, are broad, bright and magnificent. As detailed photographs taken by Voyager 2 show, the rings are made up of billions of blocks of ice and rock, ranging in size from boulders as large as houses down to tiny fragments the size of snowflakes. They are only a few tens of metres thick. Some astronomers think that the rings are the fragmented remains of a moon that was smashed apart by a passing comet.



Three rings can be made out from Earth. The outer ring (A ring) is separated from the other two lying inside it (B and C) by a gap called the Cassini Division. Voyager 2 spotted fainter rings beyond A ring. It also revealed that each ring was, itself, divided into thousands of ringlets.



Saturn has a large family of moons, many of which are small, irregularly shaped bodies with some even sharing the same orbits.



Swirling clouds and storms can sometimes be seen as ripples on Saturn’s globe. Saturn rotates very quickly, producing a distinct bulge at its equator. It is the least dense of the planets: if a large enough bathtub could be found, Saturn would float in the water!



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