Leo

. See: Kabbalah.
. Its Intelligence, or beneficial spirit, is Agiel (layga), and its spirit (darker aspect) is Zazel (lzaz).
. Its Angel is Cassiel.
. In Hebrew, Saturn is called 'Shabbathai'.

In the symbolism of alchemy, Leo denoted the absorption or assimilation of one substance by another. This is based on Five Elements which was traditionally used to classify natural elements. Leo rules the heart and spine. Chinese and Japanese culture designate the planet Saturn as "Earth Star". Each astrological sign is assigned a part of the body, viewed as the seat of its power. Saturn is a popular setting for science fiction novels and films, although the planet tends to be used as a pretty backdrop rather than as an important part of the plot. The Egyptian pharaoh Nechepso, and his priest Petosiris, taught that at the creation of the world the Sun rose here near Denebola, and hence Leo was Domicilium Solis, the emblem of fire and heat, and the "House of the Sun". More details, see Aspects of Saturn.

It is the domicile of the Sun. Optical aid (a large pair of binoculars or a telescope) magnifying at least 20X is required to clearly resolve Saturn's rings for most people. Leo is also one of the Fixed signs (along with Taurus, Scorpio, and Aquarius). Saturn appears to the naked eye in the night sky as a bright, yellowish star varying usually between magnitude +1 and 0 and takes approximately 29 and a half years to make a complete circuit of the ecliptic against the background constellations of the zodiac. In some cosmologies, Leo is associated with the classical element Fire, and thus called a Fire Sign (with Aries and Sagittarius). While it is a rewarding target for observation for most of the time it is visible in the sky, Saturn and its rings are best seen when the planet is at or near opposition (the configuration of a planet when it is at an elongation of 180° and thus appears opposite the Sun in the sky.) In the opposition on January 13, 2005, Saturn appeared at its brightest until 2031, mostly due to a favourable orientation of the rings relative to the Earth. The Western astrological sign Leo of the tropical zodiac (July 24 – August 23) differs from the astronomical constellation and the Hindu astrological sign of the sidereal zodiac (August 10 – September 15). The primary mission ends in 2008 when the spacecraft has completed 74 orbits around the planet.

In Greek mythology, it was identified as the Nemean Lion (and may have been a source of the tale) which was killed by Herakles during one of his twelve labours, and subsequently put into the sky. As of 2005, Cassini is conducting multiple flybys of Titan and icy satellites. Lajard's Cultes de Mithra mentions the hieroglyph of Leo as among the symbols of Mithraic worship, but how their Lion agreed, if at all, with ours is not known. Huygens descended onto the surface of Titan on January 14, 2005, sending a flood of data during the atmospheric descent and after the landing. But the International Dictionary says that this symbol is a corruption of the initial letter of Λεων (Leon). The orbiter completed two Titan flybys before releasing the Huygens probe on December 25, 2004. Gaius Julius Hyginus's writing published in 1488 and Albumasar's in 1489 showing this latter member of extraordinary length, twisting between the hind legs and over the back, Hygnus's manuscript properly locating the star Denebola in the end. In June 2004, it had conducted a close flyby of Phoebe sending back high-resolution images and data.

The astrological symbol has been supposed to portray the animal's mane, but it also might be the animal's tail. Before the SOI, Cassini had already studied the system extensively. Kircher gave its title there as Πιμεντεκεων, Cubitus Nili. On July 1, 2004, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft performed the SOI (Saturn Orbit Insertion) maneuver and entered into orbit around Saturn. The Egyptian stellar Lion, however, comprised only a part of ours, and in the earliest records some of its stars were shown as a knife, as they now are as a sickle. They also discovered the small Maxwell and Keeler gaps. Distinct reference is made to Leo in an inscription of the walls of the Ramesseum at Thebes, which, like the Nile temples generally, was adorned with the animal's bristles, while on the planisphere of Dendera its figure is shown standing on an outstretched serpent. The probes discovered and confirmed several new satellites orbiting near or within the planet's rings.

For the same reason the Sphinx is said to have been sculptured with Leo's body and the head of the adjacent Virgo, although Egyptologists maintain that this head represented one of the early kings, or the god Harmachis. Saturn's gravity was used to direct the spacecraft's trajectory towards Uranus. Pliny wrote that the Egyptians worshipped the stars of Leo because the rise of their great river was coincident with the Sun's entrance among them. Unfortunately, during the flyby, the probe's camera stuck and some planned imaging was lost. The adoption of this animal's form for the zodiac sign has been attributed to the fact that when the Sun was among its stars in midsummer the lions of the desert left their accustomed haunts for the banks of the Nile, where they could find relief from the heat in the waters of the inundation. More close-up images of Saturn's moons were acquired, as well as evidence of changes in the atmosphere and the rings. In Euphratean astronomy it was additionally known as Gisbar-namru-sa-pan, variously translated, but by Bertin, as the Shining Disc which precedes Bel, "Bel" being our Ursa Major, or in some way intimately connected therewith. Almost a year later, in August 1981, Voyager 2 continued the study of the Saturn system.

The Persians called it Ser or Shir; the Turks, Artan; the Syrians, Aryo; the Jews, Arye; and the Babylonians, Aru — all meaning a lion. The flyby also changed spacecraft's trajectory out from the plane of the solar system. But Manilius had it Jovis et Junonis Sidus (Star of Jove and Juno), as being under the guardianship of these deities, perhaps appropriately considering its regal character, especially that of its lucida. However, it also proved that Titan's atmosphere is impenetrable in visible wavelengths, so no surface details were seen. Bacchi Sidus (Star of Bacchus) was another of its titles, the god always being identified with this animal, and its shape the one often adopted by him in his numerous transformations, while a lion's skin was his frequent dress. Voyager 1 performed a close flyby of Titan greatly increasing our knowledge of the atmosphere of the moon. Ovid wrote it as Herculeus Leo and Violentus Leo. Surface features of various moons were seen for the first time.

Early Hindu astronomers knew it as Asleha and as Sinha, the Tamil Simham but later, influenced by Greece and Rome, as Leya or Leyaya, from the word Leo, as the Romans commonly called it. It sent back the first high-resolution images of the planet, rings, and the satellites. Leo contains many bright galaxies, of which the twins (Spiral Galaxy M65, Spiral Galaxy M66) and (Spiral Galaxy M95, Spiral Galaxy M96) are the most famous. In November 1980, the Voyager 1 probe visited the Saturn system. [1]. [9]. Gliese 436, a faint star in Leo about 33 light years away from the Sun, is orbited by one of the smallest extrasolar planets ever found. It also measured the temperature of Titan.

The star Wolf 359, one of the nearest stars to Earth's solar system (7.7 light-years), is in Leo. The spacecraft also studied the rings; among the discoveries were the thin F-ring and the fact that dark gaps in the rings are bright when viewed towards the Sun, or in other words, they are not empty of material. A former asterism representing the tuft of the lion's tail has since become its own constellation, Coma Berenices. Resolution was not good enough to discern surface features, however. These stars represent the head and the mane of the lion. Low-resolution images were acquired of the planet and few of its moons. Regulus, η Leonis, and γ Leonis, together with the fainter stars ζ Leo (Adhafera), μ Leo (Ras Elased Borealis), and ε Leo (Ras Elased Australis), make up the asterism known as the Sickle. It flew within 20,000 km of the planet's cloudtops.

Many other fainter stars have been named as well, such as δ Leo (Zosma), θ Leo (Chort), κ Leo (Al Minliar al Asad ), λ Leo (Alterf), and (ο Leo (Subra). Saturn was first visited by Pioneer 11 in September 1979. This constellation contains many bright stars, such as Regulus (α Leonis), the lion's heart; Denebola (β Leonis); and γ¹ Leonis (Algieba). Due to the tidal forces of Saturn, the moons are currently not at the same position as they were when they were first formed (for a timeline of discovery dates, see Timeline of natural satellites). . Saturn's most noteworthy moon is Titan, the only moon in the solar system to have a dense atmosphere. Leo lies between dim Cancer to the west and Virgo to the east. These are compared to Earth's moon in the table below.

Leo (Latin for lion, symbol , Unicode ♌) is a constellation of the zodiac. Seven of the moons are massive enough to have collapsed into a spheroid under their own gravitation. ISBN 0393312364. The precise figure will never be certain as the orbiting chunks of ice in Saturn's rings are all technically moons, and it is difficult to draw a distinction between a large ring particle and a tiny moon. Norton & Company. Saturn has a large number of moons. W. Nevertheless, the Cassini imaging team kept looking for spokes in images of the rings, and the spokes reappeared in images taken September 5, 2005.

Liungman, W. Some scientists speculated that the spokes would not be visible again until 2007, based on models attempting to describe spoke formation. Dictionary of Symbols, by Carl G. The spokes were not visible when Cassini arrived at Saturn in early 2004. ISBN 0486210790. They appear to be a seasonal phenomenon, disappearing in the Saturnian midwinter/midsummer and reappearing as Saturn comes closer to equinox. Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning, by Richard Allen Hinckley, Dover. Twenty-five years later, Cassini observed the spokes again.

(1/κ Leo) 4.47 Al Minliar al Asad. However, the precise mechanism behind the spokes is still unknown. (78/ι Leo) 4.00 Tsze Tseang

Until 1980, the structure of the rings of Saturn was explained exclusively as the action of gravitational forces. In 2004, the Cassini spacecraft revealed the first views of the backlit side in 25 years. From Earth, we cannot appreciate this because the Earth cannot view Saturn from an angle that displays the backlit side of the rings, and our only views of it are from spacecraft. The side of Saturn's rings that is lit by the Sun looks very different to the backlit side, which is darker overall and appears almost black in the thick B ring.

Compare images from the Cassini spacecraft taken in March and October 2004, and a Pioneer 11 picture from 1979:. [8]. The atmosphere is composed of molecular oxygen gas (O₂) and is thought to be a product of the disintegration of water ice from the rings into its components, oxygen and hydrogen. Data from the Cassini space probe indicates that the rings of Saturn possess their own atmosphere, independent of that of the planet itself.

Still more structure in the rings actually consists of spiral waves raised by the moons' periodic gravitational perturbations. Other gaps arise from resonances between the orbital period of particles in the gap and that of a more massive moon further out; Mimas maintains the Cassini division in this manner. Some gaps are cleared out by the passage of tiny moonlets such as Pan, many more of which may yet be undiscovered, and some ringlets seem to be maintained by the gravitational effects of small shepherd satellites such as Prometheus and Pandora. This structure is thought to arise from the gravitational pull of Saturn's many moons in several different ways.

While the largest gaps in the rings, such as the Cassini division and Encke division, could be seen from Earth, the Voyager spacecrafts discovered the rings to have an intricate structure of thousands of thin gaps and ringlets. This theory is not widely accepted today, since Saturn's rings are thought to be unstable over periods of millions of years and therefore of relatively recent origin. The second theory is that the rings were never part of a moon, but are instead left over from the original nebular material that Saturn formed out of. A variation of this theory is that the moon disintegrated after being struck by a large comet or asteroid.

One theory, originally proposed by Édouard Roche in the 19th century, is that the rings were once a moon of Saturn whose orbit decayed until it came close enough to be ripped apart by tidal forces (see Roche limit). There are two main theories regarding the origin of Saturn's rings. They extend from 6,630 km to 120,700 km above Saturn's equator, and are composed of silica rock, iron oxide, and ice particles ranging in size from specks of dust to the size of a small automobile. The rings can be viewed using a quite modest modern telescope or with a good pair of binoculars.

In 1675, Giovanni Domenico Cassini determined that Saturn's ring was actually composed of multiple smaller rings with gaps between them; the largest of these gaps was later named the Cassini Division. The riddle of the rings was not solved until 1655 by Christiaan Huygens, using a telescope much more powerful than the ones available to Galileo in his time. They are arranged in a line parallel to the zodiac, and the middle one [Saturn itself] is about three times the size of the lateral ones [the edges of the rings]." He also described Saturn as having "ears." In 1612 the plane of the rings was oriented directly at the Earth and the rings appeared to vanish, and then in 1613 they reappeared again, further confusing Galileo. He wrote to the Duke of Tuscany that "Saturn is not alone but is composed of three, which almost touch one another and never move nor change with respect to one another.

The rings were first observed by Galileo Galilei in 1610 with his telescope, but he was unable to identify them as such. Saturn is probably best known for its planetary rings, which make it one of the most visually remarkable objects in the solar system. [7] The cause of the change is unknown. While approaching Saturn in 2004, the Cassini spacecraft found that the radio rotation period of Saturn had increased slightly, to approximately 10 h 45 m 45 s (± 36 s).

System III, based on radio emissions from the planet, has a period of 10 h 39 min 22.4 s (810.8°/d); because it is very close in value to System II, it has largely superseded it. All other Saturnian latitudes have been assigned a rotation period of 10 h 39 min 24 s (810.76°/d), which is System II. Since Saturn does not rotate on its axis at a uniform rate, two rotation periods have been assigned to it (as in Jupiter's case): System I has a period of 10 h 14 min 00 s (844.3°/d) and encompasses the Equatorial Zone, which extends from the northern edge of the South Equatorial Belt to the southern edge of the North Equatorial Belt. HST imaging of the south polar region indicates the presence of a jet stream, but no strong polar vortex nor any hexagonal standing wave[6].

An apparently permanent hexagonal wave pattern around the polar vortex in the atmosphere at about 78°N was first noted in the Voyager images[4] [5]. Astronomers using infrared imaging have shown that Saturn has a warm polar vortex, and is the only planet in the solar system known to do so. The careful study of these episodes reveals interesting patterns; if it holds another storm will occur in ~2020.(Kidger 1992). Previous Great White Spots were observed in 1876, 1903, 1933, and 1960, with the 1933 storm being the most famous.

The 1990 storm was an example of a Great White Spot, a unique but short-lived Saturnian phenomenon with a roughly 30-year periodicity. Saturn's usually-bland atmosphere occasionally exhibits long-lived ovals and other features common on Jupiter; in 1990 the Hubble Space Telescope observed an enormous white cloud near Saturn's equator which was not present during the Voyager encounters and in 1994 another, smaller storm was observed. Since then, however, Earth-based telescopy has improved to the point where regular observations can be made. Saturn's finer cloud patterns were not observed until the Voyager flybys.

Saturn's winds are among the Solar System's fastest; Voyager data indicates peak easterly winds of 500 m/s (1116 mph)Solarviews. Saturn's atmosphere exhibits a banded pattern similar to Jupiter's (in fact, the nomenclature is the same), but Saturn's bands are much fainter and they're also much wider near the equator. An additional proposed mechanism by which Saturn may generate some of its heat is the "raining out" of droplets of helium deep in Saturn's interior, the droplets of helium releasing heat by friction as they fall down through the lighter hydrogen. Most of the extra energy is generated by the Kelvin-Helmholtz mechanism (slow gravitational compression), but this alone may not be sufficient to explain Saturn's heat production.

Saturn has a very hot interior, reaching 12000 K at the core, and it radiates more energy into space than it receives from the Sun. Traces of various ices are also present. Saturn's interior is similar to Jupiter's, having a rocky core at the center, a liquid metallic hydrogen layer above that, and a molecular hydrogen layer above that. This is only an average value, however; Saturn's upper atmosphere is less dense and its core is considerably more dense than water.

Saturn is also the only one of the Solar System's planets less dense than water, with an average specific density of 0.69. The other gas planets are also oblate, but to a lesser degree. This is the result of its rapid rotation and fluid state. 108,728 km).

It is flattened at the poles and bulging at the equator; its equatorial and polar diameters vary by almost 10% (120,536 km vs. Saturn is an oblate spheroid. . [2], [3].

The Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese cultures refer to the planet as the earth star (土星), based on the Five Elements. Its symbol is a stylized representation of the god's sickle (Unicode: ♄). It was named after the Roman god Saturn. Saturn has a prominent system of rings, consisting of mostly ice particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris.

It is a gas giant, the second-largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter. Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun.
. Ben Bova's novel Saturn (2003) is about a spacecraft traveling toward the planet, although Saturn itself does not figure greatly in the story.

On her forehead is the planet's symbol. Her birth is thought to bring destruction to the world, as she's known as the sailor of death and rebirth. In the anime Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, Sailor Saturn is a guardian representing the planet. In the sci-fi anime Cowboy Bebop (1998), in the year 2068 a war was fought on Titan.

In Michael McCollum's novel The Clouds of Saturn (1998), SparrowHawk pilots Larson Sands and Halley Trevanon fight against the Northern Alliance during a time when the Sun has flared out of control and boiled Earth's oceans away. Stephen Baxter's novel Titan (1997) is focused on the moon Titan, but contains vivid depictions of a journey through the Saturnian system. The Citadel research and mining space station, setting of the computer game System Shock (1994), is in orbit of Saturn for most of the game. Tim Burton's film Beetlejuice (1988) is partly set on a fictional Saturn, populated by giant sandworms.

Warhammer 40,000's universe (1987) places the headquarters of the Grey Knights of the Ordo Malleus in Saturn's moons, owing to their defensive capability. In a later episode from 1986, "Money is Everything," which takes place in the year 2006, Titan has been terraformed by humans. An episode of the cartoon series Transformers from 1985, "The God Gambit," reveals that humanoid aliens have a thriving civilization on the moon Titan. The science fiction anime series The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982–1983) has one episode that takes place in Saturn's rings, and the beginning of the movie adaptation The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? takes place near the moon Titan and Saturn's rings.

The film Saturn 3 (1980) is mostly set on one of Saturn's moons, but also features a journey through the planet's rings. Other Saturnian moons are visible but not named. Saturn's moon Titan is also briefly mentioned and depicted. In the sixth book of the Yoko Tsuno comic book series (Les Trois soleils de Vinéa, 1976), a small part of the action takes place on a Vinean space station in orbit around Saturn.

Douglas Trumbull's film Silent Running (1972) features an ark-like spacecraft traveling through the Saturnian system. When the film version targeted the same spacecraft to Jupiter, the travel to Saturn was retconned to match in the sequel novel 2010: Odyssey Two. Clarke's later novel Imperial Earth (1976) takes place partially at a human colony on Titan. Clarke's novel version of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), a spacecraft visits the Saturnian system.

In Arthur C. In the Star Trek universe (1966–), Saturn is used for the Starfleet Academy Flight Range. Kurt Vonnegut's novel The Sirens of Titan (1959) is partly set on Titan, Saturn's best known moon. In Isaac Asimov's short story The Martian Way (1952), Martian colonists use a chunk of ice from Saturn's rings to bring water to the dry world.

Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos (1928–), Saturn was known as Cykranosh in the Hyperborean Era, both Tsathoggua and Atlach-Nacha came to Earth from there, and Tsathoggua's paternal uncle Hziulquoigmnzhah still resides there. P. In H. The drawing shows the surface of Saturn as a rocky, desolate, solid surface.

The rings are brightly illuminated by the sun, and an elliptical shadow is cast on them by the planet. It contains a black and white illustration showing what night might look like from the surface of the planet. The book describes Saturn as having 8 satellites and 3 rings. The unwitting adventurers in Jules Verne's Off on a Comet (1877) pass within 415,000,000 miles of Saturn while riding on a comet.

Micromégas forms a close friendship with the secretary of the Academy of Saturn, who accompanies him to Earth. Saturn's citizens are « only a thousand fathoms high », have 72 senses and live for about 15,000 years. In Voltaire's Micromégas (1752), the eponymous hero arrives at Saturn first (Uranus and Neptune were unknown then).