1 of 1

Write now Article Tools

It is not a little known secret that Saturn holds many mysteries and will pose many questions deep into the future, but a good question to ask ourselves is what is the state of our knowledge on Saturn today? To answer this truthfully, you must not ask an astronomer or a NASA scientist because they will be biased and you must not ask a congressman dealing with the budget because they will be biased as well. Even asking a high school science teacher or even a college student within a science class will give you an answer that is skewed to one direction.

Instead you need to ask this questions to the average American and you will most likely get the most truthful answer of all, "I know Saturn is a planet and it has rings, but beyond that I draw a blank." There you have it. Humans know that Saturn exists and has rings, but beyond that we know very little or to some people, virtually nothing. Surprisingly, the average American answer is the answer that matches the closest with the NASA scientists and astronomers as they too believe we know very little about the massive gas planet.

For once the answer is clear when it comes to space, we know virtually nothing about Saturn, its moons, and the rings that encircle it. The fact of the matter is, Saturn has not been a major target for space exploration spacecraft but those that did examine the massive planet provided us with information we would have never gotten sitting here on Earth.

Pioneer 11, the Voyager twins, and Cassini have provided us with multitudes of information but three of these four spacecraft merely passed by Saturn on their way out of the solar system and Cassini's four five years around the planet have posed more questions than they have answered. The sheer monumental size of Saturn is a leading cause of this poor state of knowledge but the vast distance from the Sun and the technological hurdles to get spacecraft there are just a few that add to the underlying causes that our state of knowledge on Saturn is very poor.

The future spacecraft envisioned by the space agencies of the world at this current time don't look like they are going to do much to change this state as they are primarily focused on Saturn's moons and not Saturn itself. Hopefully this state will improve before we reach Mars, but at least I won't be holding my breath.

Learn more about this author, Robert Freeman.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about The state of human knowledge on Saturn?
We want to hear your view. Write now!