Apparently Cassini detected radio emissions and they said they detect lightening. Would that mean that Saturn has an atmosphere.

Obviously Saturn is too far from the sun for us to live on it, due to the cold temperatures,. My question is, if it's uninhabitable why are we there? Why are we giving so much money to exploring all these other planets ?

Of corse sateren has an atsmaspher its Called a gas giant .Almost all Atsmaspher as far as we know theres no accutal serfice GROUNd on sateren or juptier But these planets are SO large that the hydren in the centers is Called MATLIC Hydren get that hydren as a solid. very cool
As for cold wrong again sateren and juptier are Both so big they generate there own HEAT internily so the tempture in the lower leavels could be very high. As a matter of fact some sciencetest have considered juptier a FAiled star hence 2001 space oddicy .

Saturn is an atmosphere. It is a gas giant, and completely inhospitable to humans. But there are moons in orbit around it that may one day be habitable. Either way, the more we learn about the outer planets and their moons the more we learn about the history of the solar system. And the formation of planets in general.

EDIT: SC4: Jupiter is a long way off being a failed star, also please don't tell me english is your first language.

[edit on 23-7-2004 by Kano]

Saturn is almost all atmosphere and a little bit of ice in the center. Of course theres going to be lighting. When you have lots of air you get lots of weather. And that obviously leads to lightning. I'd be suprised if there wasn't lightning. The main reason Cassini is there is to check out one of Saturns moons Titan. Titan might be able to support some life such as bacteria. Thats why Cassini was created. And it doesn't really hurt to know about our suroundings.

BTW deeprivergal,

There is nothing wrong with not knowing...only not asking.

Here is a quick little list of the planets and what type they are in oder from closest to the sun to furthest..

Mercury - solid
Venus - solid with a thick atmosphere
Earth - Filled with icky humans
Mars - Solid with very thin atmosphere
Jupiter - Gas Giant with MANY (over 50) moons. Largest planet.
Saturn - Gas Giant with rings. Its moon titan is very large and has its own atmosphere too.
Neptune - Gas Giant
Uranus - Gas Giant
Pluto/Cheron - Pluto and its moon which is half its own size. They orbit eachother rather than what you normally think of as a moon/planet combo.

Also thunderstorms in Jupiter are huge compared to those in Earth.

Thunderstorms on Jupiter can be the SIZE of Earth!

Gazrok after reading your story about getting hit by lightning repeatedly I recommend you never visit Jupiter. But imagine how big the lightning bolts are. And if there powerful on Earth wonder how many amps you get on Jupiter.

Originally posted by deeprivergal
My question is, if it's uninhabitable why are we there? Why are we giving so much money to exploring all these other planets ?

why are we there?
The money is a drop in the bucket, compared to other US budget items..
2-3 percent.
There is a lot to learn..WHY are they NOT habitable, for one..
How did the planets, especially the larger ones, play a role in allowing Earth
to become full of life..

Those Gas Giants are COMET sponges, and may have saved Earth from being completely destroyed. By sucking in all those large chunks..

Then, there are the moons, many moons..One, in particular MAY have life.
Europa, a moon of Jupiter, is like an orbiting ice cap..Yep, the whole suface of the moon is an Ice cap, in a manner of speaking. Underneath, theory has it, there is an ocean, equal in size to all the oceans of Earth..Something may be lurking in that Big ocean, something alive..It's worth studying, for that reason.

Then, there are the Weather patterns, HUGE scale storms, like previously mentioned. Those can offer a glimpse into Universal Atmospheric dynamics.
Meaning, what we find there, may help explain things that happen on Earth.

Another reason, in order to discover Extra-solar planets, those outside of our solar system, It's a real good idea to study the nearest one we know about,
OURS , LOL..Why did the planets line up they way they did? How do they effect each other, How many planets were here during the original formation
of our Solar System?, how many were ejected?

Questions Questions...


Of Course, Humans are just plain Curious, LIKE YOU!!
Don't ever be afraid to ask questions here..Someone is always here to help out!

Space.

If Jupiter doesn't have a hard surface, then what happens to the asteroids/comets it sucks in? It has to have a surface.

It doesn't HAVE to have a surface. The Sun has no surface, and it swallows things into oblivion all the time..
ALthough, it (Jupiter) MAY have a surface, a tiny rocky core..I have also heard theorys of
a Liquid Hydrogen core. Very HIGH pressures there..

You may remember that the Galileo Spacecraft dropped a probe into/onto
Jupiter..It was definitely sucked-in...And eventually Crushed under the high pressures..

Of course we never did figure out what caused that. Some scientists exploded a bomb over a whole bunch of match sticks (the bomb simulating the object and the matches simulating trees). They tried to prove what caused the explosion. Anyhow it looked the same as the Tunguska incident. Also looked the same as Hiroshima after the A-Bomb got dropped. But all that they were really able to prove was that an object exploded in mid-air.