What Would You See If You Fell Into Saturn?

Imagine falling into the heart of Saturn, a vast gas giant with no solid surface. What would you see?

You would start by passing through the planet's bright white clouds of ammonia crystals, where the temperature is around minus 130 degrees Celsius and the pressure is around 1 atmosphere. As you fall deeper, you would enter a second layer of dark brown clouds made of ammonium hydrosulfide and ammonium sulfide. The pressure here would increase to between 2 and 4 atmospheres, and the temperature would drop to around minus 100 degrees Celsius.

As you descend further, the sun's light would be unable to penetrate, and your surroundings would become dark. But with your special space helmet, you would be able to see the violent winds whipping past you at speeds of up to 1,100 miles per hour.

After falling for about 140 miles, you would reach the bottom of the second layer of clouds and enter a region of towering dark water ice clouds. This is where the pressure would become truly immense, reaching millions of atmospheres.

If you could survive the crushing pressure, you would eventually reach the metallic hydrogen layer, where hydrogen exists in a metallic form and conducts electricity. This layer is responsible for Saturn's powerful magnetic field.

Deeper still, you would reach the planet's core, which is thought to be made of rock and ice.

Of course, no human could ever survive a fall into Saturn. But by imagining what we might see, we can gain a better understanding of this fascinating and mysterious planet.