NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / color composite by Gordan Ugarkovic, Public domainSaturn
Planet · Gas giant
The ringed giant whose average density is lower than water
Overview
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun, and is the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth of the average density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive. Even though Saturn is almost as big as Jupiter, it has less than a third of its mass. Saturn orbits the Sun at a distance of 9.59 AU (1,434 million km), with an orbital period of 29.45 years.
Source: Wikipedia
Why it matters
- Its main rings are hundreds of thousands of kilometres wide but typically only about 10 metres thick.
- A persistent hexagonal jet stream circles the north pole; Cassini watched its colour change with the seasons.
- Moon Enceladus vents water plumes from a global subsurface ocean, and Titan has methane lakes and rivers.
System
- Discovered
- known since antiquity
- Star
- Sun · G2 V · 5,772 K · 1 M☉
- System
- 8 known planets
Orbit in the Solar System
| World | Period | Distance | Radius | Mass | Temp. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 88 d | 0.387 AU | 0.38 R⊕ | 0.055 M⊕ | 440 K |
| Venus | 224.7 d | 0.723 AU | 0.95 R⊕ | 0.82 M⊕ | 737 K |
| Earth | 365.2 d | 1 AU | 1 R⊕ | 1 M⊕ | 288 K |
| Mars | 687 d | 1.52 AU | 0.53 R⊕ | 0.11 M⊕ | 208 K |
| Ceres | 4.6 yr | 2.77 AU | 0.07 R⊕ | 0.94 ×10²¹ kg | — |
| Jupiter | 11.9 yr | 5.2 AU | 1 R♃ | 1 M♃ | 163 K |
| Saturn | 29.4 yr | 9.57 AU | 0.84 R♃ | 95.11 M⊕ | 133 K |
| Uranus | 83.7 yr | 19.16 AU | 0.36 R♃ | 14.53 M⊕ | 78 K |
| Neptune | 163.7 yr | 30.18 AU | 3.88 R⊕ | 17.08 M⊕ | 73 K |
| Pluto | 247.9 yr | 39.48 AU | 0.19 R⊕ | 13 ×10²¹ kg | 48 K |
| Haumea | 282 yr | 43.1 AU | 0.12 R⊕ | — | 50 K |
| Makemake | 306.6 yr | 45.6 AU | 0.11 R⊕ | 3.1 ×10²¹ kg | — |
| Eris | 561.3 yr | 67.9 AU | 0.18 R⊕ | 17 ×10²¹ kg | 43 K |
| Sedna | 12,676.2 yr | 544 AU | 0.08 R⊕ | — | 12 K |
this worldhabitable zone 0.95 AU – 1.67 AUlog distance scaleorbital phases are arbitrarydashed = dwarf planets
By the numbers
- Radius
- 0.84 R♃9.4 R⊕
- Mass
- 95.11 M⊕568 ×10²⁴ kg
- Orbital period
- 29.4 yr
- Distance from Sun
- 9.57 AU1,432 million km
- Eccentricity
- 0.052elliptical
- Mean temperature
- -140 °C133 K
- Gravity
- 9 m/s²0.92 g
- Day length
- 10.7 h0.4 Earth days
- Moons
- 274with a ring system
- Density
- 0.69 g/cm³
- Axial tilt
- 26.7°
Sources
Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / color composite by Gordan Ugarkovic, Public domain · Public domain · image page
Text: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Taglines and highlights are editorial.