You will probably think that Saturn, because of its great distance from the sun, would be fairly dark, and that the temperature would not be too warm even at the equator. If you think that way, you are in error, because this planet has its own light, which is proportionately stronger to the same degree as it is larger than earth. This planet is also surrounded by an atmosphere which is a 1,000 times larger and farther reaching, with a diameter of almost 100,000 geographic miles, whereas the earth’s atmosphere does not even measure 2,000 geographic miles in diameter, inclusive of the earth’s diameter. Since Saturn’s atmosphere has such an extraordinarily large diameter, how many sunrays is this large air sphere capable of absorbing in order to conduct them in a broken line and in a more condensed form to the surface of this planet? This is also why the inhabitants of Saturn see the sun as being many times larger than do the inhabitants of earth. And through this, the heat around the equator would be unbearable if it were not tempered by the surrounding ring, which absorbs most of the condensed sunrays and partly makes use of them itself; the remainder it returns to the universe. That is why, through a telescope, the ring appears more illuminated than the planet itself, while its shadow has a very beneficial effect upon Saturn and, through this, the tropical or hot zone becomes a moderate zone. – Saturn, Chapter 2, Paragraph 5