Saturn
CosMos Astronomy - Southern Hemisphere
"I have observed the highest planet to be tripled-bodied. This is to say that to my very great amazement Saturn was seen to me to be not a single star, but three together, which almost touch each other".
~Galileo on discovering Saturn's ring system
SATURN DATA:
Distance from Sun:
Aphelion 1,513,325,783 km
Perihelion 1,353,572,956 km
Equatorial Diameter:
120,500km
Mass:
5.6846×1026 kg
(95.152 Earths)
Composition:
~96% Hydrogen
~3% Helium
~0.4% Methane
~0.01% Ammonia
~0.01% Hydrogen deuteride
0.0007% Ethane
Ices: Ammonium, water, ammoniun hydrosulfide
Moons:
61
Orbital Period:
29.456 yrs
Rotational Period:
10hrs 34mins
Apparent magnitude:
+1.47 to -0.24
Angular diameter:
14.5" to 20.1"
MAJOR MOONS (Diameter):
Mimas (400km) discovered by W. Herschel 1789.
Enceladus (500km) discovered by W. Herschel 1789.
Tethys (1060km) discovered by G. Cassini 1684.
Dione (1120km) discovered by G. Cassini 1684.
Rhea (1530km) discovered by G. Cassini 1672.
Titan (5150km) discovered by C. Huygens 1655.
Iapetus (1440km) discovered by G. Cassini 1671.
Details of rise and set as well as relevant monthly information can be found on the Sky This Month page.
VIDEOS - Check out the video section for videos of Saturn and it's moons.
CURRENT SPACECRAFT MISSION:
Cassini - A decade ago, NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew past Earth at a distance of 1,171 kilometers (727 miles) on its way to an appointment with the solar system's second largest occupant - Saturn. Check out the latest news, images and videos.
SATURN NEWS:
Cassini Sees Tropical Lakes on Saturn Moon
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spied long-standing methane lakes, or puddles, in the "tropics" of Saturn's moon Titan.
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Enceladus Plume is a New Kind of Plasma Laboratory
Recent findings from NASA's Cassini mission reveal that Saturn's geyser moon Enceladus provides a special laboratory for watching unusual behavior of plasma, or hot ionized gas.
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Cassini Spots Tiny Moon, Begins to Tilt Orbit
NASA's Cassini spacecraft made its closest approach to Saturn's tiny moon Methone as part of a trajectory that will take it on a close flyby of another of Saturn's moons, Titan.
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Saturn's Moon Enceladus Spreads Its Influence
The small, dynamic moon spews out dramatic plumes of water vapor and ice -- first seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in 2005. It possesses simple organic particles and may house liquid water beneath its surface.
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Latest Cassini Images of Enceladus on View
Raw, unprocessed images from the successful Oct. 19 flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus by NASA's Cassini spacecraft provide new views of the moon and the icy jets that burst from its southern polar region. More...
Cassini Chronicles Life of Saturn's Great Storm
New images and animated movies from NASA's Cassini spacecraft chronicle the birth and evolution of the colossal storm that ravaged the northern face of Saturn for nearly a year.
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NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured new views of Saturn's oddly shaped moon Hyperion during its encounter with this cratered body on Thursday, Aug. 25. More...
Scientists analyzing data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft now have the first-ever, up-close details of a Saturn storm that is eight times the surface area of Earth.
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Trapped in Saturn’s magnetosphere, the volume of space controlled by the planet’s magnetic field, the radiation belts are only present between zones limited by the orbital distances of the planet’s moons.
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Scientists analyzing data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft now have the first-ever, up-close details of a Saturn storm that is eight times the surface area of Earth.
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NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered the best evidence yet for a large-scale saltwater reservoir beneath the icy crust of Saturn's moon Enceladus. More...
NASA is releasing the first images and sounds of an electrical connection between Saturn and one of its moons, Enceladus.
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Recent data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show that the variation in radio waves controlled by the planet's rotation is different in the northern and southern hemispheres.
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Scientists working with data from NASA's Cassini, Galileo and New Horizons missions have traced telltale ripples in the rings of Saturn and Jupiter back to collisions with cometary fragments. More...
Have the surface and belly of Saturn's smog-shrouded moon, Titan, recently simmered like a chilly, bubbling cauldron with ice volcanoes, or has this distant moon gone cold? More...
More News... archived news about Saturn, it's moons and current missions.