Who discovered Saturn? Was this planet known to the ancients or is it modern science that brought it to our attention? To be honest, in the old times people were better informed on the movement of the stars than we are today, and the presence of Saturn must have been noticed even with primitive telescopes. Most often, Galileo is recognized as the scientist who discovered Saturn in 1610, since in his descriptions he even gave an explanation for the rings. According to his words, there were some little ears on either side of the planet, and he thought they were globes. Yet, later on, the white rings were identified and have remained the most spectacular scape in the solar system.
The analysis of the globes made by Galileo started from a confusion he didn’t know how to understand. He was the person who discovered Saturn, but the thing is that he considered to have seen three planets instead of one. The clarification of the rings’ presence was provided in 1655 when Christiaan Huygens realized that what Galileo referred to as globes were actually rings, buttheir structure became apparent twenty years later with the discovery made by Giovanni Domenico Cassini. He was the one to launch the theory that Saturn’s rings were not solid or unitary but, consisting of small individual parts.
Presently we are aware that the rings consist of ice, rocks and other interplanetary remains, which only contributes to underlying the truth of the early theories. Who discovered Saturn then? A fair conclusion is that this part of our solar system gradually revealed itself to our eyes, but the discovery is not by far complete. Every year seems to get something new for us to discover: thus, more than forty of Saturn’s moons have become known, some of them with potential conditions to sustain life. Thus the question is not about who discovered Saturn, but what is there more to discover?
The tribute paid to Galileo as the person who discovered Saturn is obvious, but he was not the only one. The spacecraft which captured the first pictures from Saturn was called Cassini after the scientist who revealed and analyzed the structure of the rings around this planet. Yet, there are many other people who are currently taking part to space exploration projects; maybe their names are not written in history, but their effort is just as great and important. With every step we take towards knowing our universe, we claim one more victory in the exploration of the unknown.
Posted on March 27th, 2009 by Admin
Filed under: Other
Leave a Reply