The discovery of the rings of Saturn presents a case of many observations performed throughout the history of humanity. People discovered Saturn early in prehistoric times because Saturn is easily visible to the naked eye despite being the most distant planet. The five planets visible to the naked eye presented a significant knowledge resource and astrological considerations in ancient societies. In Egypt, where planets were associated with gods, Saturn was associated with Nemesis, Horus, and Sobek (Quack, 2019). Further observations of the planet and the discovery of Saturn’s rings were possible only with the introduction of telescopes. However, due to poor resolution in the early telescopes, in the 17th century, the first astronomers only saw an incomprehensible luminous shape that changed in time, leaving them no opportunities in recognizing the object (Roncato, 2019). This report will identify the concepts which formed the basis of knowledge associated with the discovery of Rigs of Saturn and explain its importance for contemporary society.
The history of the discovery of Saturn’s rings is closely associated with Galileo Galilei, an Italian astronomer, engineer, and physicist, who significantly contributed to the development of modern science. Galileo’s first observations of Saturn in 1610 allowed him to develop a schematic representation of Saturn with two large moons on its sides. During further observations of the planet in 1612 and 1616, the scientist determined that the objects identified by the scientist as half eclipses turn with time (Roncato, 2019). Considering that religious systems of that period, particularly Catholicism, perceived Earth as the center of the universe, Galileo’s discovery presented a significant breakthrough for the scientific community (Ge, 2021). The scientist embedded the discovery in an anagram to protect his claim before presenting the discovery to the world. Half of the century after Galileo’s discovery, Christian Huygens proposed that the eclipses construct a system of rings. Furthermore, in 1675 Jean-Dominique Cassini discovered the gap between Saturn’s rings, which later became known as Cassini Division.
Further discovery of Saturn’s rings in the Cassini-Huygens mission was performed using robotic spacecraft. The examination of Saturn’s rings determined that they are mainly composed of water and ice with a similar composition to terrestrial water which may indicate a similar water source for both the inner solar system and outer solar system (Clark et al., 2018). The mission discovered that the structure of rings occurs due to gravitational interaction between the planet and its moons. Among other important discoveries conducted through the mission is Titan, one of the moons in the Saturn system that has surface liquids similar to Earth (Spilker, 2019). Therefore, the mission provided valuable information about the Saturn system and the overall Solar System.
The discovery of Saturn’s rings presents significant importance to the development of contemporary society. Initially, Saturn was considered an important component of religious beliefs in the early history of humanity. Then, as opposed to conservative religious beliefs, Galileo’s discovery of Saturn’s rings presented a substantial threat to the Ptolemaic model, which suggests Earth as the center of the universe. Galileo’s discovery contributed to the escalation of scientific studies during the Renaissance era. It paved the way for further studies on Saturn and the development of modern science such as physics and astronomy. Even though Galileo was not the first scientist who discovered the rings of Saturn, he invented the method for protecting and claiming discoveries. For example, Huygens also followed Galileo and created an anagram of his finding to defend his claim for the discovery of Saturn’s rings system.
Next, the process of further discoveries of Saturn’s rings allowed the development and improvement of robotic spacecraft and their further application in space research missions. The mission’s results provided important insights into Saturn’s ring system’s structure, composition, and the planet’s interactions with its many moons. The discovery of Saturn’s moons also contributed to the discovery of Titan, the first Earth-like analog and the only body besides Earth with liquids on its surface. Therefore, the discovery of Saturn’s rings substantially impacted the promotion of science during the renaissance era, the development of modern physics and astronomy, and space research.
References
Ge, Y. (2021). From geocentric to heliocentric: How discoveries are made. Springer.
Clark, R. N., Brown, R. H., Cruikshank, D. P, & Swayze, G.A. (2018). Isotopic ratios of Saturn’s rings and satellites: Implications for the origin of water and Phoebe. Icarus, 321, 791-802. Web.
Quack, J. F. (2019). The planets in Ancient Egypt. In Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Planetary Science. Web.
Roncato, S. (2019). Saturn and its rings: Four centuries of imperfect amodal completion. I-Perception, 10(1), 1-18. Web.
Spilker, L. (2019). Cassini-Huygens’ exploration of the Saturn system: 13 years of discovery. Science, 364(6445), 1046–1051. Web.