Why Astronauts Can’t Land on Saturn: Exploring the Gas Giant

KOMPAS.com – Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and is named the second largest planet in the solar system, after Jupiter.

According to NASA, there have been several space missions that have visited Saturn, one of which is Cassini, which orbited Saturn 294 times from 2004 to 2017.

However, why have no astronauts ever landed on Saturn?

The reason astronauts can’t land on Saturn

The first reason to answer this question is because Saturn is a type of planet known as a gas giant.

Also read: How were Saturn’s rings formed?

Saturn, like the planet Jupiter, consists almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, as well as remnants of ice containing water, ammonia and methane.

Deeper still, hydrogen on Saturn becomes liquid under pressure, and below it, heavier helium undergoes the same process.

Below that, with greater pressure, hydrogen can be converted into metallic hydrogen.

Thus, Saturn has a rocky core estimated to be about 10 times the mass of Earth, with a solid interior made of metals such as iron and nickel.

So, theoretically, if you go deep enough, there might be something to use as a foothold on this gas planet, even though it’s also possible that the core is liquid.

Also read: What are the Seasonal Changes Like on the Planet Saturn?

Then, reason number two is the enormous pressure and temperature inside Saturn, which would prevent astronauts from reaching the gloop.

Atmospheric pressure on Earth is just over 1 bar, while on Saturn it reaches more than 1 million bars.

If the astronauts managed to survive the destruction, they would burn in temperatures reaching thousands of degrees Celsius.

In short, astronauts cannot land on gas planets, and to reach the planet’s core, any object would have to be destroyed before being turned into steam.

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2023-11-01 08:30:00
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