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With an equatorial diameter of about 74,897 miles (120,500 kilometers), Saturn is 9 times wider than Earth. If Earth were the size of a nickel, Saturn would be about as big as a volleyball. From an average distance of 886 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers), Saturn is 9.5 astronomical units away from the Sun.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine-and-a-half times that of Earth. [26] [27] It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive.
- 9.68 km/s (6.01 mi/s)
- 10ʰ 33ᵐ 38ˢ + 1m 52s, − 1ᵐ 19ˢ
- 9.87 km/s (6.13 mi/s; 35,500 km/h)
- 140 kPa
- Structure and Surface
- Time on Saturn
- Saturn's Neighbors
- Quick History
- What Does Saturn Look like?
Saturn is a gas giant like Jupiter. It is made mostly of hydrogen and helium.Saturn has a thick atmosphere.Saturn has a lovely set of seven main rings with spaces between them.One day on Saturn goes by in just 10.7 hours.One year on Saturn is the same as 29 Earth years.As of June 8, 2023, Saturn has 146 moons.Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun. That means Jupiter and Uranus are Saturn’s neighboring planets.Saturn has been known since ancient times because it can be seen without advanced telescopes.Four robotic spacecraft have visited Saturn, including Pioneer 11, Cassini, and Voyager 1 and 2.The Cassini spacecraft took this picture of Saturn's rings. You can see the grey and tan colors. This is a picture of Saturn and its moons Tethys and Dione. Voyager 1 took this picture as it passed by. NASA's Cassini spacecraft went behind Saturn and took this picture in 2013. You can see seven of its moons and its inner rings. In the background yo...
May 3, 2024 · The equatorial gravity of the planet, 896 cm (29.4 feet) per second per second, is only 74 percent of its polar gravity. Saturn is 95 times as massive as Earth but occupies a volume 766 times greater. Its mean density of 0.69 gram per cubic cm is thus only some 12 percent of Earth’s.
- Who first observed Saturn with a telescope?The Italian astronomer Galileo in 1610 was the first to observe Saturn with a telescope. Although he saw a strangeness in Saturn’s appearance, the...
- How far is Saturn from Earth?Saturn orbits the Sun at a mean distance of 1,427,000,000 km (887 million miles). Its closest distance to Earth is about 1.2 billion km (746 millio...
- What feature is Saturn known for?Saturn is surrounded by a ring system. The entire ring system spans nearly 26,000,000 km (16,000,000 miles) when the faint outer rings are included...
- What is Saturn's largest moon?Titan is Saturn's largest moon and the only moon in the solar system known to have clouds, a dense atmosphere, and liquid lakes. The diameter of it...
- Is Saturn light enough to float?Saturn has the lowest mean density—about 70 percent that of water—of any known object in the solar system. Hypothetically, Saturn would float in an...
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest planet in our solar system. Like fellow gas giant Jupiter, Saturn is a massive ball made mostly of hydrogen and helium. Saturn is not the only planet to have rings, but none are as spectacular or as complex as Saturn's.
Saturn has 52 known natural satellites, or moons, and there are probably many more waiting to be discovered. Saturn's largest satellite, Titan, is a bit bigger than the planet Mercury.
