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Between planets, Saturn follows Jupiter in size. It has 318 times the volume of the Earth, with a diameter of more than 120,700 km To 1426 million km of the Sun, is the moved away planet more of the observed ones from old times & brightness weaker than Jupiter, Venus or Mars.
From the first observations with telescope, this planet has made an impression to the popular imagination by its beautiful ring system, composed of a myriad of tiny fragments that it orbits throughout the equatorial Saturn plane like small moons. The assembly of the system reaches an outer diameter of 273,588 km, but it has less than 15 km of thickness when is seen it from the edge, & cannot be distinguished at first. Titán, the name that occurs to the main Saturn moon, was discovered in 1665, is greater than Mercury & can be observed with prism binocular; its chemical composition, very rich, has given foot to the scientific speculation of which the primitive conditions of the Earth perhaps have an retort in this improbable corner of the Solar System.
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Distance from the Sun (Semimajor axis of orbit) 1,426,725,400 km 9.53707032 A.U. Mean Equatorial Radius Volume (Earth = 1) Mass Density Gravity Escape Velocity (at equator) Sidereal Rotation Period (Earth days) Sidereal Orbit Period (Earth years) Mean Orbit Velocity Orbit Eccentricity Orbit Inclination to Ecliptic Inclination of Equator to Orbit Atmospheric Temperature (at level with pressure = 1 bar) Major Atmospheric Constituents Natural Satellites |
With an orbital period of 29 ˝ years, Saturn is slowest of planets discovered at times old, & it seems to have taken to two alternative lines of symbolic association, amplified by the European approaches & Chinese to the meaning of the planet. In the medieval European vision of the Universe, cradle in a the cosmology of Tolomeo, Saturn occupies the more extensive planetary circuit, on the strip below the sphere that includes/underst&s the signs of the zodiaco. To Saturn one considered, cold & melancholic solitaire, & governor of the very same time slow. On a par with her sluggish nature attributed to the planet, identified with the metal lead. This it is Saturn as it marks of the outer limit, the border of our reality. A line of symbolism related to this one contemplates to Saturn like enemy of the life opposed to the great Sun like maleficent . In this paper it could be shown like the ignominy as opposed to the nobility of the Sun, the dirt, the suspended waters, the insects & the lice fall within their égida.
The Chinese interpretation invests the European approach; Saturn it is seen him like Earth representative, the central element between the five beings. The Chinese Saturn name, stars mitigante , has the connotation of the exorcism, indicating that aid can look for to expel the demons. In a thing both traditions agree: the slow Saturn movement gives character him of longevity, & in the Chinese astrology, just like in Europe & a the Asian zone of Greek influence, personifies it in the figure of an old one.
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The Saturn origins in the modern western astrology present/display a complex panel. We must overcome us to mesopotámica mythology to gather some of its more significant origins, & the image that appears to us is even confused there. In mesopotámicos myths, the planet belongs to the God Ninurta , brother of Nergal (its Mars). Nevertheless, the similarities between these Gods soldiers were such that to both brothers were fused to them often in a single organization. Ninurta became a God with extraordinary powers after to have rescued the tablets of the destiny that had been robbed him to Enlil by the dragoon of the Zu wind, that had been allied with the powers of the Chaos. As a pledge of gratitude by their anger & its success, the Gods granted to Ninurta the guard of the tablets in such a way that it became the foresighted one of the own destiny, preappearing a significant line in later astrological Saturn. |
Ninurta is represented in the figure of the left. Courtesy of the British Museum |
There are other aspects of Ninurta that fit but with our conventional Saturn symbol. Was associated frequently it with the arms, represet&o it to it like an eagle, sometimes an eagle bifronte that watched two opposed sides, image that still is in a the heráldica. Equally difficult to cuadrar with the later tradition it is his solar association: some Roman writers indicate that the mesopotámicos astrologers called to Saturn the Helium star (the Sun) . It reflects one old & dark practice to give the name of Shamah to Saturn, as well as to the Sun Epígenes de Bizancio, approximately 200 a Greek astronomer of a.C., can provide the key to us. It said to have studied in Chaldea, the region of the southern Babylonia that became famous like origin of the astrology. Epígenes taught that Saturn had the Maxima influences on the movements of other celestial bodies, & we can conjecture that that is the reason that Ninurta / Saturn is known him like second Sun .
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The history of Cronos, Greek Saturn, & its castration of its father Uranus, is one of myths more known the classic canon. This story locates to Saturno/Cronos like first of the sequence of the traditional planetary Gods. In a the following phase of the myth the narration is repeated to itself to give origin to the second, & greater, planetary God. Gea & Urano, while this last one lies dying due to its castration, prophesy that Cronos will be overthrown by one of its children, to giajl that it had usurped the throne to his father. In order to prevent such destiny, devora Cronos to its children as soon as Criminal stop them. Criminal, furious, stops a third son, Zeus, in the dark at night, & the delivery to Gea so that she takes care of it; Criminal gives then to Cronos a stone so that devore, making him think that he is his son. He is Zeus (Jupiter of the Romans) who gives fulfillment to the prophecy, overthrowing to its father & establishing its supreme law. From this form, they arise two successive times of Saturno/Cronos & Júpiter/Zeus after the kingdom primigenio from Gea/Tierra & Urano/Cielo, in which the time did not exist. |
Rea & CronosIn Greek mythology Criminal is the mother of the Gods. Here she appears represented giving his husb&, Cronos, a stone surrounded in diapers instead of his son, Zeus. This work, made between centuries I & III, is in the base of a stone statue in the Capitolino Museum of Rome. |
The development of the Greek Cronos as Roman Saturn is amazing at first, & introduces mitológicos elements that do not fit easily with purely astrological later Saturn. Saturn was an Italian God of the agriculture, identified with a primitive legendary king of Rome; its reign so smooth & was civilized that soon Golden age was denominated. The celebration of the Saturnalias marked the solstice of winter, when the Sun enters the saturnian sign of Capricorn, really with the movement of the precession of the equinoxes the Sun is in the constellation of Sagittarius. During the three holidays the businesses were suspended, it was not punished the delinquents & to the slaves it granted an extraordinary license to them; during this brief period the world was seen totally altered. This popular event was extended up to seven days at the end of the empire; with his custom to ignite to see them & to interchange gifts, it turns out to be the pagan origin of our celebrations of Christmas.
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Masm(Last update 08.29.2006)
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