What if humans explored Saturn?

In 2017, NASA's Cassini probe sent back the closest images of Saturn as it plunged into the planet's stormy atmosphere and got some amazing information. So what would happen if humans explored Saturn?

Saturn is 1.2 billion kilometers away from Earth, and with today's spacecraft technology, it would take you about 8 years to make the trip. Finally, you arrive and see Saturn with your own eyes, a giant planet, the second largest in the solar system and 760 times larger than Earth.

Saturn is 1.2 billion km from Earth.

Saturn's Rings

Having come all the way here, it would be a shame to miss Saturn's rings. The rings are as wide as the distance between the Earth and the Moon, and they appear to be a giant solid disk, but up close, they are made up of millions of ice blocks, some as small as dust particles, others as large as buses. To travel one lap of the rings, you would have to travel 12 million kilometers, or about 15 laps from Earth to the Moon. Along the way, you will encounter small moons.

Saturn's rings are as wide as the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

Material here is gradually breaking away from the rings, heading towards Saturn in meteor showers. It turns out that Saturn's magnetic field is pulling the material in the rings towards the planet, so it's lucky we're visiting Saturn now, because in about 300 million years the rings will be gone.

Enter the planet

We will enter Saturn and land on the north pole, but wait, there is no ground to land on. Saturn is made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, which is why it is called a gas giant. We will enter Saturn's atmosphere from about 4,000 km above the surface. As we pass the north pole, we will be treated to a beautiful aurora. Saturn's magnetic field generates large electric currents that heat the atmosphere at the poles, which can disrupt navigation systems and electronics on board.

Next, we enter the troposphere, 250 km above the surface. Be careful, strong winds can hit us at speeds of nearly 400 m/s. That's three times faster than the strongest hurricanes on Earth. We are surrounded by dense yellow clouds, which are the dominant color of the planet. They are full of ammonia . It's best to keep your windows closed, ammonia is very irritating and can wreak havoc on your respiratory system. Not to mention, the temperature here is -250 degrees Celsius, much colder than the East Antarctic Plateau (-100 degrees Celsius) - the coldest place on Earth. Now let's go down to a warmer place.

We have now reached the surface of the planet, which is covered in a mixture of water vapor and ammonia gas, and the temperature is now 0 degrees Celsius. The deeper we go, the higher the pressure, causing the water molecules to freeze, forming violent hailstorms. Hopefully they don't blow our ship to pieces, but if we make it through, we'll reach the next layer.

After going 1,000 km inland, the pressure is so high that it forces the hydrogen molecules to compress together into a liquid form, which is not good at all, because even the most durable submarine would be crushed under these conditions.

After the liquid hydrogen layer is the liquid metallic hydrogen layer, which lies 30,000 km inland. The problem here is that metal can conduct electricity, so even if our navigation equipment and electronics escaped the aurora in the upper layer, they would definitely not survive this layer.

But if we survive, our last stop might be Saturn's core. Scientists suspect Saturn has a core made of iron and nickel, but they're not sure if it's liquid or solid like Earth's core. So we'll be the lucky first to find out once and for all.

However, the temperature here is over 83,000 degrees Celsius, hotter than the surface of the Sun and could easily destroy the spacecraft and its crew. We should go back while we still can!