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About Saturn
About Saturn
Named after the Roman god of agriculture and time, and also the father of Jupiter.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and is another gas giant, composed mostly of hydrogen and helium. It’s famous for its spectacular ring system, the most extensive and complex of any planet in the solar system. Saturn is also known for its many moons, including the largest moon, Titan.
Distance of Saturn From the Sun - Saturn orbits the Sun at an average distance of 1.429 billion km (889 million miles), or 9.58 AU. (1 AU = Distance from Earth to Sun)
Earth size comparison - Saturn is the second-largest planet, about 9.5 times the size of Earth. If Earth were an apple, Saturn would be a watermelon.
Five Facts About Saturn
Five Facts About Saturn
Famous Rings – Saturn’s rings are made up of ice particles, dust, and rocky debris. They extend out over 280,000 km (174,000 miles) from the planet, but they’re only about 1 km (0.6 miles) thick.
Titan, Saturn’s Largest Moon – Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is larger than Mercury and has its own thick atmosphere, primarily made of nitrogen, with lakes of liquid methane on its surface.
Gas Giant – Like Jupiter, Saturn is primarily made of hydrogen and helium, with no solid surface. It’s mostly a ball of gas with a small, dense core.
Low Density – Saturn is the least dense planet in the solar system. If there were a large enough body of water, Saturn would float in it!
Many Moons – Saturn has at least 82 moons (as of now), including Enceladus, which is believed to have a subsurface ocean and may potentially harbor microbial life.
Click on any of the names below to learn more about other planets in our solar system.
Mercury | Venus | Earth | Mars | Jupiter | Saturn | Uranus | Neptune | Dwarf Planet Pluto
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