• Question: Which planet do you like the most and why?

    Asked by 872xygg26 to Mark on 17 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Mark Kennedy

      Mark Kennedy answered on 17 Nov 2016:

      I love Saturn the most – it’s an absolutely beautiful planet with some really weird things going on with it.

      Firstly, have a look at Saturn in full It’s beautiful and has these amazing rings.

      Second, check out this weird looking storm that is raging at its North pole. Storms on Earth are normally circular in shape, but this thing looks lik a hexagon!

      Third, one of its moons, Enceladus (), might have liquid water on it, which means it’s a likely candidate for having life on it!

      Finally, it’s the subject of one of my favourite photos of space called “The Day the Earth smiled”. For this photo, NASA told everyone on Earth when the photo would happen (they took two so that both sides of Earth got to take part) and NASA asked that everyone look up at the Sun and Smile.

      The reason is Cassini (a spacecraft orbiting Saturn, here are some amazing photos it’s taken https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/galleries/images/ ) was behind Saturn, and blocked out the Sun using Saturn so that it could see Earth. Here’s the resulting photo with Earth, Venus and Mars marked You’ll have to zoom in to see Earth. Here’s the story about it: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=pia17172

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