ANSWERS: 3
  • All the Gas Giants have some features on their surface, which can be observed to move. Mercury and mars, being should, have obvious features. The difficult one was Venus, until they could bounce radar off its surface.
  • Track the time it takes for a distiguishing landmark or formation to return to it's original spot and culculate with the circumference of the body.
  • 1) "For planets with solid surfaces, the spin rate can simply be determined by tracking the motion of landforms as they rotate across the surface. Like the rocky planets, gas giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn spin on their axes with well defined rotation periods. But, with no solid surface features to track, measuring the rotation period of a gas giant is a challenge. The approach that has worked for Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune — using the rotation of the planet’s magnetic field to infer its bulk rotation — gives results for Saturn that change with time, and implies a pattern of atmospheric winds that is very different from that seen on Jupiter. Peter Read, of the University of Oxford in the UK, and his colleagues used atmospheric dynamics on Saturn to derive a rotation rate that is slightly faster than those inferred from magnetic measurements. When Saturn’s atmospheric winds are viewed relative to this new interior reference frame, they show a pattern of alternating eastward and westward jets similar to the pattern seen on Jupiter. "This shifted reference frame is consistent with a pattern of alternating jets on Saturn that is more symmetrical between eastward and westward flow,"Read and his co-authors write. "This suggests that Saturn’s winds are much more like those of Jupiter than hitherto believed." The authors propose a new rotation rate of 10 hours and 34 minutes, as opposed to the previous estimate of 10 hours 39 minutes. The new rate also sheds light on Saturn’s interior structure, including its density and the mass of a possible rocky core. And it bears on the latitudinal gradient of temperatures below the clouds." Source and further information: http://www.universetoday.com/2009/07/30/saturn-sees-days-shorter-than-thought-winds-like-jupiter-sort-of/ 2) "The visible features on Saturn rotate at different rates depending on latitude, and multiple rotation periods have been assigned to various regions (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. All other Saturnian latitudes have been assigned a rotation period of 10 h 39 min 24 s (810.76°/d), which is System II. System III, based on radio emissions from the planet in the period of the Voyager flybys, has a period of 10 h 39 min 22.4 s (810.8°/d); because it is very close to System II, it has largely superseded it. However, a precise value for the rotation period of the interior remains elusive. While approaching Saturn in 2004, the Cassini spacecraft found that the radio rotation period of Saturn had increased appreciably, to approximately 10 h 45 m 45 s (± 36 s). The cause of the change is unknown—it was thought to be due to a movement of the radio source to a different latitude inside Saturn, with a different rotational period, rather than because of a change in Saturn's rotation. Later, in March 2007, it was found that the rotation of the radio emissions did not trace the rotation of the planet, but rather is produced by convection of the plasma disc, which is dependent also on other factors besides the planet's rotation. It was reported that the variance in measured rotation periods may be caused by geyser activity on Saturn's moon Enceladus. The water vapor emitted into Saturn's orbit by this activity becomes charged and "weighs down" Saturn's magnetic field, slowing its rotation slightly relative to the rotation of the planet itself. At the time it was stated that there is no currently known method of determining the rotation rate of Saturn's core. The latest estimate of Saturn's rotation based on a compilation of various measurements from the Cassini, Voyager and Pioneer probes was reported in September 2007 is 10 hours, 32 minutes, 35 seconds." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn

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