How Far Away is Saturn from the Sun?
Written by Fraser Cain
Saturn. Image credit: Hubble
Saturn is the 6th planet from the Sun, with its famous and beautiful rings. But how far away is Saturn from the Sun? Saturn orbits the Sun at an average distance of 1.43 billion km, or 889 million miles.
This number is an average distance, though. That's because Saturn follows an elliptical path as it orbits around the Sun. At the closest point of its orbit, called perihelion, Saturn is only 1.35 billion km or 838 million miles. And then at the most distant point of its orbit, called aphelion, Saturn is 1.51 billion km or 938 million miles. The eccentricity of Saturn's orbit is 0.0565.
Astronomers measure distances in the Solar System using astronomical units. 1 AU or astronomical unit, is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun; about 150 million km. So the average distance from the Sun to Saturn, measured in astronomical units, is 9.537 AU. So, Saturn is 9 times more distant from the Sun than Earth.
We've written many articles about the distances to planets for Universe Today. Here's an article about how far Earth is from the Sun, and here's an article about how far Mercury is from the Sun.
If you'd like more info on Saturn, check out NASA's World Book on Saturn. And here's a link to the homepage of NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which is orbiting Saturn.
We've also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast all about Saturn. Listen here, Episode 59: Saturn.
Filed under: Astronomy
Tags: distance from sun, distance from the sun, planet saturn, Saturn
