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Saturn is the sixth planet of the Sun and the second largest in the solar system behind Jupiter. It is a gas giant – which means that it is almost entirely composed of hydrogen and helium – with a mean radius about nine times greater than that of the Earth and is best known for its prominent cyclical systems. However, this planet – which is close enough to be seen in the night sky this month – has not always been as it does today.
During Brian Cox's new show called "The Planets", NASA discovered that it was a very different planet 4.5 billion years ago.
Dr. Cox told viewers earlier this month, "If an atmosphere gets big enough, it can transform an entire planet.
"Just a few million years after birth, Saturn had become as big as possible, it was just rock and ice.
"And now he's turned to another building material – hydrogen and helium gas left behind by the formation of the Sun.
"This gas would have been too light for the world of the internal solar system to be able to keep up."
Dr. Cox then explained how the Saturn forces sucked the gases.
He detailed: "The great mass of Saturn has created gravitational forces powerful enough to attract it.
"Billions and billions of tons of hydrogen and helium began to invade the planet.
"As this new atmosphere grew, it transformed the surface below.
"The tremendous pressure created by the weight of this gas, which so warmed the rock and the ice, began to shine."
Dr. Cox then revealed how this process completely transformed Saturn.
He continued, "As Saturn matured, the surface pressure was ten times the atmospheric pressure on Earth.
"Under this kind of pressure, the material behaves in an extremely strange way.
"The very idea of a surface loses all its meaning and Saturn, from a frozen, rocky world, has been transformed into a totally different category of planet: a gas giant."
During the same documentary, it was revealed that NASA had also discovered that Neptune was once "bursting with activity".
Dr. Cox revealed, "Neptune – 17 times the mass of the Earth and even more massive than Uranus.
"But unlike its sister planet, Neptune's atmosphere is full of activity.
"What we have discovered is a planet of extreme weather, where high-altitude winds sweep methane clouds at speeds above 2,000 km / h.
"These are the highest wind speeds of the solar system."
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