In 2017, NASA's Cassini probe
sent us our closest view of Saturn
as it dove into the
planet's stormy atmosphere.
And the results were stunning.
But what would it be like
if humans made the journey in person?
At its closest,
Saturn is 1.2 billion
kilometers away from Earth.
So with today's spacecraft technology,
you'll need about eight
years to make the trip.
Finally, you arrive and
get your first glimpse
of Saturn with your own eyes.
It's an enormous planet,
the second largest in the solar system.
In fact, over 760 Earths can fit inside.
But hold up.
We can't visit Saturn and skip over
the best part, its iconic rings.
Saturn's rings are almost as wide
as the distance between
the Earth and the moon,
so at first glance, they seem like
an easy place to land and explore on foot.
Except there's one problem.
While they look like giant discs,
they're not a solid track at all.
Instead, they're made of
millions of chunks of ice,
some as tiny as dust particles,
others as large as buses.
But if you were able to hike
on one of Saturn's outermost rings,
you'll walk about 12 million kilometers
to make it around the longest one.
That's about 15 round trips
from the Earth to the moon.
Along the way, you'll
come across tiny moons
and spokes of dust
levitating above the surface.
Now, you might notice that
streams of tiny ice particles
are also flying off the
rings, heading towards Saturn.
That's ring rain.
It turns out, Saturn's magnetic fields
are slowly but surely
draining away the rings,
so we're lucky to visit the rings now,
because every 30 minutes,
they lose enough water
to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool,
and if we arrived 300
million years in the future,
we'd miss them entirely.
Now, let's climb back aboard
and visit the planet itself,
282,000 kilometers away.
As we reach the north pole,
we'll notice a slight
problem with our plan
to land on the surface below.
There is no surface below.
Saturn's made almost entirely
of hydrogen and helium gas,
which is why it's called a gas giant.
4,000 kilometers above the surface,
we hit Saturn's upper atmosphere.
As we plummet through the north pole,
we'll be treated to the sight
of a magnificent aurora,
like the ones we see in Alaska.
It turns out, Saturn's magnetic field
generates huge electrical currents,
which heat up the atmosphere at the poles.
Unfortunately, the electrical activity
within this aurora can disrupt
our ship's electronics
and navigation system,
so best marvel at a distance.
Next, we'll hit the troposphere,
the part of the atmosphere
where weather happens.
So watch out, powerful
winds may slam into us
at nearly 400 meters per second.
That's over three times faster
than the strongest hurricanes on Earth.
All around us, thick yellow clouds
give the planet its color.
These are filled with ammonia crystals.
If you take a sniff, you might be able
to smell that distinctive scent,
but you should probably
keep the window closed.
Ammonia is very irritating
and could wreak havoc on
your respiratory system.
Plus, it's freezing out here,
reaching as low as minus
250 degrees Celsius,
much colder than the
East Antarctic Plateau,
the coldest place on Earth.
So let's head down
where it's a bit warmer.
Down here, at a depth of 300 kilometers,
we reach a layer of water,
which is a balmy 0 degrees Celsius.
Now, the deeper we plunge,
the higher the pressure is around us.
And in this next layer,
the pressure is so high,
it forces those liquid
water molecules together,
creating solid ice.
That ice mixes in with surrounding gasses,
so get ready to fight
through a flurry of hail.
Hopefully, the ice won't
shred our ship to pieces,
but if we make it through,
get ready to go for a swim.
Because 1,000 kilometers
into the interior,
the pressure is so high,
it forces hydrogen molecules
together into a liquid,
which doesn't bode well for us,
since even the sturdiest submarine
would be crushed in these conditions.
And if we somehow survive
to reach the next layer,
we'll hit yet another obstacle.
A layer of liquid metallic hydrogen.
The problem here is that this
metal can conduct electricity,
so even if our navigation
equipment and electronics
escape the aurora upstairs,
it's probably down for the count now.
But if we could survive here,
our final stop might uncover a mystery
in the deepest depths of Saturn.
You see, scientists
suspect Saturn has a core
made of iron and nickel,
but they're not sure if it's liquid,
like the previous layer, or
solid, like Earth's core.
So maybe we'll be the lucky ones
to find out once and for all.
Though, it's over 83,000
degrees Celsius in here,
hotter than the surface of the sun
and hot enough to dissolve our spacecraft
with us inside!
Hm.
Maybe we should leave
the Saturn exploration
to unmanned probes after all.
