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Saturn

Saturn - Rotating Model
Credit: Almond/NASA

Saturn is the second largest planet in the Solar System after Jupiter.

Like Jupiter, it is a Gas Giant and so its visible surface is not solid. It is most well known for its dramatic and beautiful ring system. The rings are not solid, but are made up of many millions of small lumps of ice and rock, varying from a few centimetres to several metres across. These are all orbiting around Saturn together.

Although they look very impressive, the rings are only about 1 km thick, compared to 250,000 km in diameter!

The first space-probe to go to Saturn was Pioneer 11 in 1979, but there have been several others since.

Saturn is known to have at 62 moons. The largest, Titan, is larger than both Mercury and the dwarf planet Pluto.

Planet Data Sheet show »« hide
Facts and FiguresMercuryVenus EarthMarsJupiter SaturnUranusNeptune
Orbital Distance (AU)10.380.72 1.01.525.2 9.4519.230.06
Radius (KM)2,4406,052 6,3783,39771,492 60,26825,55924,746
Mass (Earth Masses)20.0550.82 1.00.11318 95.214.517.1
Year Length
(Earth Days)		88225 365.2568711.9
Years		 29.45
Years		84.0
Years		164.8
Years
Day Length
(Earth Days)		176117 1.01.030.41 0.430.750.67
Surface Gravity (g)30.380.91 1.00.382.34 0.930.921.12
Surface Temperature-200 to
400 °C		460 °C -80 to
50 °C		-150 to
20 °C		-110 °C -140 °C-190 °C-200 °C
Number of moons00 1263 602713
Notes: 1 1 AU (or Astronomical Unit) = 149,600,000 KM and is the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun
2 1 Earth Mass = 5,980,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 KG : 3 1 g = 9.8 m/s2

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