Eli5: Saturn is made of gas, and lots of it. Why does the gas stays “connected” and doesn’t just float into space?
In: 1
Gravity.
A gas giant is massive. Despite being made of mostly hydrogen, Saturn has ten times the mass of Earth. Gravitational pull is directly affected by the amount of mass an object has – the more mass, the more gravity has an effect.
The gravity for such a large object pulls it all towards a central point, forming a sphere. It’s the same process that forms other planets, rocky or gaseous.
The pressure from all of the gas in Saturn’s core may actually cause it to have a solid core.
Latest Answers