Saturn

Saturn is a gas giant planet located in the Solar System of the Milky Way Galaxy. It is the sixth planet closest to the sun and second largest planet, as well as the second largest gas giant in the solar system. Saturn has sixty-two natural satellites as well as an indeterminate amount of moonlets. The name Saturn is taken from the mythological Saturn, who was the God of the Capitol, agriculture, wealth and time in the ancient Roman religious pantheon. Saturn is the most visibly recognizable of the planets due it's large concentric rings of ice that surround it.

2001: A Space Odyssey
In the 1968 Arthur C. Clarke novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, Earth scientists discover the third extraterrestrial Monolith orbiting Saturn. Jupiter replaces Saturn in the 2001: A Space Odyssey film however. In the early script drafts for the film, Saturn was to be used as the Discovery One 's destination, but director Stanley Kubrick was unsatisfied with the special effects treatments used to render Saturn's rings, so the script was revised to make use of Jupiter rather than Saturn. As it turned out, satellite images of Saturn taken from the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions in 1977 would have made the effects team's original designs implausible. As it stands, Jupiter was still used in the novel, albeit briefly, to provide the Discovery One with additional gravitational thrust to expedite its journey to Saturn.

Planet of the Apes
Saturn made a brief appearance in the opening scenes from Tim Burton's 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes. The United States Air Force research station Oberon was in orbit around Saturn conducting genetic research on primates.

Saturn 3
Saturn played a brief role in the 1980 film Saturn 3. In the film, a huge spacecraft is in orbit about the planet and is set to launch a craft to one of the moons, carrying an experiment on board. There is a small experimental food research station on the moon containing a hydroponics system, which is maintained by a two-person scientific crew consisting of a man nmaed Adam and his colleague and lover Alex.

Notes & Trivia

 * A partial representation of Saturn is used as the corporate logo for the Syfy network (formerly the Sci-Fi Channel).


 * The 1967 Pink Floyd song "Astronomy Domine" makes reference to several planets and their moons including Saturn. The first stanza of the song contains the lyrics, "Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon Miranda and Titania".


 * The annual Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films award ceremony, colloquially known as the Saturn Awards, is named for the planet Saturn.