Planets
All About Saturn
(Contd. from page 4...)The current set of rings may be only a few hundred million years old. Like the other jovian planets, Saturn has a significant magnetic field. When it is in the nighttime sky, Saturn is easily visible to the unaided eye. Though it is not nearly as bright as Jupiter, it is easy to identify as a planet because it doesn't "twinkle" like the stars do. The rings and the larger satellites are visible with a small astronomical telescope. There are several Web sites that show the current position of Saturn (and the other planets) in the sky. More detailed and customized charts can be created with a planetarium program. Saturn's Satellites Saturn has 34 named satellites: Of those moons for which rotation rates are known, all but Phoebe and Hyperion rotate synchronously.The three pairs Mimas-Tethys, Enceladus-Dione and Titan-Hyperion interact gravitationally in such a way as to maintain stable relationships between their orbits: the period of Mimas' orbit is exactly half that of Tethys, they are thus said to be in a 1:2 resonance; Enceladus-Dione are also 1:2; Titan-Hyperion are in a 3:4 resonance. See http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/%7Esheppard/satellites/ for the latest about recently discovered moons. See http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040816newmoons.html for info about two discovered in 2004 by Cassini.