Saturn has Ears?
1610 AD
1610 1610

NAT

SIXTH PLANET, SOLAR SYSTEM
	Today you can walk into any toy store and buy a telescope for under five dollars that can magnify objects 40 times (40-power). That is more magnification than Galileo's telescope, a 32-power device that he used to make a curious discovery.
	In 1610 Galileo turned his priceless instrument -- the best in the world at that time -- toward Saturn. He saw what appeared to be two small planets on either side of the main planet and concluded that "Saturn is not one alone, but is composed of three, which almost touch one another."
	Later, Johannes Hevelius reported that Saturn seemed to have two fuzzy handles sticking out from its sides like ears. 
	While we might chuckle that scientists thought that Saturn might have ears, that is precisely what the ring system looked like with low-powered telescopes.
	Progress in knowledge is sometimes dependent not on brilliant minds, but on precision instruments. Better telescopes and the Voyager spacecraft have been just such instruments to free our minds of foolish "facts." But, what "facts" of today will be the nonsense of the future?
	In the case of Saturn, it was not until Christiaan Huygens invented a new method for grinding telescope lenses were telescopes powerful and accurate enough to present the true picture. By 1659, Huygens reported that "Saturn is surrounded by a thin, flat ring."
	Actually, when Voyager 1 passed by the planet, it discovered that there are several rings, some in interesting shapes.
	Saturn is larger than 800 Earths, and, like Jupiter, is made mostly of hydrogen. It is 889 million miles from the sun and takes 30 years to go once around the sun, but spins on its axis twice as fast as Earth. Because of its rapid rotation and low density, Saturn swells outward at its equator like a lump of pizza dough expands when tossed up and twirled. Though far from Earth, Saturn is not lonely. It has at least 23 moons, the largest of which is Titan.
	Until 1781, when Uranus was discovered, Saturn was believed to be the last planet at the edge of the solar system.
