Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the most distant planet that can be seen with the naked eye (You need a telescope to see Uranus and Neptune). It is best known for its fabulous rings, which were discovered in 1610 by the astronomer Galileo Galilei.

Planet Profile

Mass: Saturn weighs 95.16 times as much as Earth. That means it would take close to 100 Earths to weigh as much as Saturn does.

Known Moons: 62

Most Famous Moons: Titan, Rhea & Enceladus

Known Rings: There are over 30 rings around Saturn. They are grouped into 7 different groups.

Orbit Distance: 1,426,666,422 km (this is how far Saturn travels as it loops around the sun)

Orbit Period: It takes 29.45 Earth years for Saturn to orbit the sun one time, so one year on Saturn is equal to almost 30 years on Earth.

Surface Temperature: -139 °C (This is really, really cold!--much colder than it ever gets anywhere on Earth.)

This Diagram Shows The Size Of Saturn Compared To The Earth

Facts About Saturn

Saturn can be seen with the naked eye:

It is the fifth brightest object in the solar system. You can spot it on clear nights without a telescope.

Saturn is named for the Roman God Saturnus.

People from many ancient civilizations wrote about Saturn. The ancient Greeks called Saturn Cronus.

Saturn is the flattest planet.

Some people think all planets are round, but Saturn is actually shaped like a soccer ball that someone sat on for a long time.

Saturn has the 2nd fastest rotation of all the planets in our solar system.

Saturn turns on its axis once every 10 hours and 34 minutes giving it the second-shortest day of any of the solar system’s planets.

Saturn orbits the Sun once every 29.4 Earth years. It's orbit is much slower than ours, because it has so much farther to travel in order to make it all the way around the sun.

Saturn’s upper atmosphere is divided into bands of clouds. Each band is made from a different frozen chemical.

The top layers are mostly ammonia ice. Below them, the clouds are largely water ice. Below are layers of cold hydrogen and sulfur ice mixtures.

Saturn has oval-shaped storms similar to the storms on Jupiter. It is always storming on Saturn.

Saturn is made mostly of 2 gases called Hydrogen and Helium. Helium is the gas that you fill balloons with to make them float. Lower levels of Saturn are made of liquid hydrogen.

The pressure on Saturn is so strong that it would crush any space craft that tried to land on it. Also the planet is almost entirely made of gas, so there wouldn't be any solid ground for a space shuttle to land on.

Saturn is known for its rings.

The rings are made mostly of chunks of ice and small amounts of dust. The rings stretch out more than 120,700 km from the planet, but they are amazingly thin. The rings of ice and dust that surround the giant planet of Saturn are actually thinner than half the length of a football field.

Saturn has 62 known moons and over 100 smaller moonlets:

All of the moons and moonlets are frozen worlds. The largest moons are Titan and Rhea. Another moon named Enceladus appears to have an ocean below its frozen surface.

Titan is One of Saturn's Moons

Titan is made mostly of water ice and rock. Its frozen surface has lakes of liquid methane and landscapes covered with frozen nitrogen. Astronomers think that there could be life on Titan, but not Earth-like life.

This video shows Saturn's moon Titan up close: