Saturn
Saturn
Planet · 9.54 AU from the Sun
Saturn facts
- Type
- Planet
- Distance from the Sun
- 9.54 AU (1.43 × 10⁹ km)
- Orbital period (year)
- 29.5 Earth years
- Diameter
- 116,464 km
- Mass
- 5.68 × 10²⁶ kg
- Moons
- 274
- Rotation period (day)
- 10.7 hours
- Axial tilt
- 26.73°
- Mean temperature
- -140 °C
- Discovered
- Known to the ancients
Orbit
About Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet and the second largest, a gas giant famous for its spectacular ring system of ice and rock. It is the least dense planet, so light it would float in water, and it holds the most confirmed moons in the Solar System.
- Named after the Roman god of agriculture
- Discovered: Known to the ancients
Major moons of Saturn
Saturn has 274 known moons; its 7 largest are shown below. Press play to start the animation.
Relative sizes and spacing are compressed; orbits shown coplanar. Click a moon for its page.
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- Titan the only moon with a thick atmosphere and the only world besides Earth with stable liquid on its surface
- Rhea Saturn's second-largest moon, an icy, heavily cratered world once suspected of having its own faint ring
- Iapetus a two-toned moon with one hemisphere dark as coal and the other bright as snow, plus a towering equatorial ridge
- Dione its trailing hemisphere is streaked with bright ice cliffs, once mistaken for wispy clouds
- Tethys made almost entirely of water ice, and scarred by the giant Ithaca Chasma canyon and the huge Odysseus crater
- Enceladus erupts icy geysers of water vapor from a subsurface ocean through fractures near its south pole
- Mimas dominated by the enormous Herschel crater, giving it a striking resemblance to the Death Star
Saturn: frequently asked questions
- What is Saturn?
- Saturn is a planet in our Solar System, orbiting the Sun at an average distance of 9.54 AU (1.43 × 10⁹ km). Saturn is the sixth planet and the second largest, a gas giant famous for its spectacular ring system of ice and rock.
- How far is Saturn from the Sun?
- Saturn orbits the Sun at an average distance of 9.54 AU, about 1.43 × 10⁹ km. One AU is the Earth-Sun distance, so Saturn is roughly 9.5 times Earth's distance from the Sun.
- How long is a year on Saturn?
- Saturn takes 29.5 Earth years to complete one orbit of the Sun. By Kepler's third law, bodies farther from the Sun take longer to go around.
- How many moons does Saturn have?
- Saturn has 274 known moons; the 7 largest are Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, Mimas.
- How big is Saturn?
- Saturn has a diameter of about 116,464 km and a mass of roughly 5.68 × 10²⁶ kg.
See Saturn in motion
Data from NASA/JPL and NSSDCA. Source.