The Planet Saturn | Universe Today

Written by Abby Cessna

Saturn. Credit: NASA

Saturn is one of the four gas giants in our Solar System, also known as the Jovian planets, and the sixth planet from the Sun. As a gas giant, Saturn is composed mostly of hydrogen with helium and bits of other chemicals included.  Saturn has been known to exist for thousands of years. It is the farthest planet from the Sun that can be seen with the naked eye. Saturn was named after the Roman god of agriculture, possibly due its golden yellow color. The Greeks had previously named the planet after their own god of agriculture and harvest, Kronos. Other cultures gave the planet different names, such as Sani according to Hindu astrology.

Saturn’s rings, which are composed of rock, ice, and other particles, are larger and more distinctive than the rings of any other planet in our Solar System. The rings are divided in a number of separate parts. Although Saturn is very well known for its spectacular planetary ring system, it has many other fascinating features. The wind s on Saturn can reach up to 1,800 kilometers per hour, which is even faster than the winds on Jupiter. Saturn occasionally has long-lived storms like Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, but they are not as frequent. Saturn does have a type of phenomena known as Great White Spots, which occur roughly every thirty years – which is about once every Saturnian year.  

Like all of the gas giants, Saturn has many moons. With 61 moons, the planet has only two fewer moons than Jupiter. It also has the second largest moon in the Solar System, Titan. Titan is the only moon to possess an atmosphere of any significance and is larger than the planet Mercury. Titan’s atmosphere is mostly nitrogen with methane and ethane clouds. The moon was discovered by the astronomer Christiaan Huygens.

Saturn is the least dense planet in the Solar System and is even less dense than water. Because it is so dense, Saturn’s mass is only 95 times the mass of the Earth. Its volume is approximately 764 times the volume of Earth. A day on Saturn is about 10 hours and 40 minutes long. It takes the planet approximately 29 and a half Earth years to equal one year on Saturn. Because Saturn rotates so quickly, it has flattened into an oval. Thus, the diameter of its equator is smaller than its diameter between its north and south poles.

Universe Today has articles on the density of Saturn and Saturn fact sheet.

Try Saturn and all about Saturn for more information.

Astronomy Cast has an episode on Saturn.

Filed under: Astronomy