What Cassini's 'Grand Finale' Taught Us About Saturn's Interior - by PaulMattSutter
. All the available evidence indicates that the planet’s atmosphere undergoes differential rotation down to a depth of 10,000 km, which is roughly 1/6 of the entire planet’s radius. This means that the atmosphere near the equator of Saturn moves faster than the atmosphere near the pole, matching what we see on the surface. Deep within Saturn, however, the differential rotation gives way to a unified rotation rate of 10 hours and 33 minutes – that is the true “day” length on that planet.
It appears that Saturn does have a core, composed of a central concentration of heavy elements. This core weighs somewhere between 12 and 20 times the mass of the Earth. However, this core is not compact like the Earth itself, but instead slowly diffuses and mixes with the hydrogen and helium atmosphere that envelops it. That gives a rough boundary of the core of somewhere around half the radius of Saturn.
Astronomers still do not fully understand how Saturn generates all of its heat. One possible mechanism is that helium condenses out of the upper atmosphere and sinks to lower depths, serving as a way to transfer energy from the core to the upper atmosphere, but this is not yet proven. The astronomers behind the study call for future missions to Saturn, especially ones designed to pierce the upper atmosphere and sink as deep into the planet as possible so that we can get a clearer picture.
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