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Who discovered Saturn? Was this planet known to the ancients or is it modern science that brought it to our attention? To be honest, in the old times people were better informed on the movement of the stars than we are today, and the presence of Saturn must have been noticed even with primitive telescopes. Most often, Galileo is widely known as the scientist who discovered Saturn in 1610, as in his descriptions he even wrote a theory about the rings. What he saw resembled some little ears on either side of the planet, and he thought they were globes. Yet, after a while, the white rings were discovered and have remained the most spectacular solar system formation ever since. The analysis of the globes suggested by Galileo came into discussion because of a confusion he didn't know how to understand. He was the astronomer who discovered Saturn, but the thing is that he considered to have seen three planets instead of one. The clarification of the rings' presence was provided in 1655 when Christiaan Huygens made the discovery that what Galileo called globes were actually rings, butnobody could tell what they were made of until some twenty years later Domenico Cassini had a revelation. He was the one to begin the theory that Saturn's rings were broken or discontinuous, consisting of small individual parts. Presently we know that the rings are made of ice, rocks and other interplanetary matter, which only contributes to underlying the truth of the early theories. 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's moons have become known, some of them with potential conditions to sustain life. Thus the question is not about who discovered Saturn, but what surprises are there in stock for us? Galileo as the person who discovered Saturn deserves all our respect and consideration, but he is not the only one. The probe which sent the the close image of Saturn for the first time was called Cassini after the scientist who understood and theorized the structure of the rings around this planet. Yet, there are many other people who are currently taking part to space exploration projects; maybe their names are not known to history, but their effort is just as great and relevant. With every step we take towards knowing our universe, we claim one more victory in the exploration of the unknown.
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