How Long is a Year on Saturn?
Written by Fraser Cain
Saturn takes a total of 29.7 Earth years to complete a single orbit around the Sun – or 10,832 days. In other words, if you lived on Saturn, and celebrated your 2nd birthday, you would be almost 60 Earth years old.
Saturn orbits the Sun at an average distance of 1.43 billion km, or 9.58 astronomical unit (1 astronomical unit, or AU, is the same as the distance from the Earth to the Sun).
Saturn has a very similar axial tilt to Earth – it's tilted at an angle of 26.73°. And this means that Saturn has seasons, very similar to the way we have seasons on Earth. Of course, on Saturn, the seasons change from cold, to colder depending on which hemisphere is receiving sunlight. Because Saturn's year is 30 times longer than Earth, the seasons last 30 times longer as well.
As Saturn makes its journey around the Sun, we see the tilt of its rings changing. Sometimes the rings are at their maximum span, and we see them at their fullest, and other times we see the rings almost edge on.
Here's an article that discusses how Saturn's rings can seem to disappear, and here's how long a day is on Saturn.
Here's a great photo collage of Saturn's rings seen at various angles to the Earth, and some general Saturn facts.
We have recorded two episodes of Astronomy Cast just about Saturn. The first is Episode 59: Saturn, and the second is Episode 61: Saturn's Moons.
Filed under: Astronomy
