Who Discovered Saturn?
Who discovered Saturn? Was this planet known to the ancients or is it modern science that brought it to our attention? The truth is that in the antiquity people had a far better knowledge of the sky map than we have today, and it is possible that they were familiar with Saturn by means of primitive telescopes. Most often, Galileo is recognized as the scientist who discovered Saturn in 1610, as in his descriptions he even gave an explanation for the rings. What he saw resembled some little ears on either side of the planet, and he presumed they were globes. Yet, later on, the white rings were discovered and have remained the most spectacular solar system formation ever since.
The globe explanation given by Galileo started from a confusion he didn't know how to explain. He was the person who discovered Saturn, but at the same time he thought there were three planets, not one. The mystery of the rings was clarified in 1655 when Christiaan Huygens realized that what Galileo called globes were actually rings, but their structure became apparent twenty years later with the discovery made by Giovanni Domenico Cassini. He was the one to launch the theory that Saturn's rings were broken or discontinuous, consisting of small individual parts.
Presently we know that the rings consist of ice, rocks and other interplanetary debris, which only proves that the early theories were right. Who discovered Saturn then? A fair conclusion is that this part of our solar system gradually revealed itself to our eyes, but the discovery is not by far complete. Every year seems to bring something new for us to discover: thus, more than forty of Saturn moons have become known, some of them with potential conditions to sustain life. Thus the question is not about who discovered Saturn, but what is there more to discover?
The tribute paid to Galileo as the person who discovered Saturn is obvious, but he was not the only one. The probe which sent the first pictures from Saturn was called Cassini after the scientist who understood and theorized the structure of the rings around this planet. Even so, there are many other people who are currently taking part to space exploration projects; maybe their names are not written in history, but their contribution is just as great and important. With every space conquest, there is one other step in the direction of learning more about the universe.