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International Edition Winners - 2013: Pakistan, Target 3, Grade 7-8 (tie)


Ambreen Sana Bhatti
Target 3, Saturn
Ambreen Sana Bhatti

School: Army Public School & College

Grade: 8

City: Sargodha

"As a member of team of scientists I have selected target no 3 i.e. Saturn for research purpose. As it was named after the God of agriculture following are its characteristics.

Saturn is just over 95 times more massive then earth. Its interior is composed of a core of iron, nickel, and rock (S1° and O2 compounds).surrounded by deep layer of metallic hydrogen. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 km/h faster than on Jupiter, but not as fast as those on Neptune.

These facts make Saturn reliable for proper researches. Not only these, but Saturn has a proper ring system that consist of nine continuous main rings and three discontinuous arcs, composed mostly of ice particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust. Saturn is classified as a gas giant because the exterior is predominantly composed of gas and it lacks a definite surface, although it may have a solid core.

Its equatorial and polar radii differ by almost 10 percent the rotation of the planet causes it to take the shape of oblate spheroid. Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, the other gas giants in the Solar system are also ablate but to a lesser extent. One of the amazing fact about Saturn is that it is the only planet of the solar system that is less dense than water about 30 percent less. Although Saturn's core is considerably denser than water. The average specific density of the planet is 0.69 glan3 due to the gaseous atmosphere. Jupiter has 3/8 times the earth mass together Jupiter and Saturn hold 92 percent of the total planetary mass in the solar system.

In 2004, it was estimated that the core must be 0.22 times the mass of the earth Discussing about it's internal structure Saturn is termed a gas giant but it is not entirely gaseous the planet primarily consist of hydrogen which becomes a non-ideal liquid when the density is above 0.01 glan3 this density is reached at a radius containing 99.9 percent of Saturn's mass. The temperature pressure, and density inside the planet all rise steadily toward the core, which in the deeper layers of the planet, cause hydrogen to transition into a metal.

Standard planetary model suggest that the interior of Saturn is similar to that of Jupiter having a small rocky core surrounded by hydrogen and helium with the trace amounts of various volatiles.

Saturn has a very hot interior, reaching 11,700 °C at the core and the planet radiates 2.5 times more energy into space, than it receives from the sun. Most of this extra energy is generated by the Kelvin. Helm bolt mechanism of slow gravitational compression. But this may not be sufficient to explain Saturn's heat Production.

Cassini has observed a series of cloud features nicknamed "String of pearls" found in the northern latitudes. These features are cloud clearings in at reside in deeper cloud layers.

So, Saturn is being selected by me as a scientist for research purpose as it has those very characteristics."