Saturn Fact Sheet

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The following Saturn fact sheet is based on NASA’s excellent planetary fact sheets. Saturn is the 6th planet from the Sun, and the second largest planet in the Solar System.

Mass: 568.46 x 10²⁴ kg
Volume: 82,713 x 10¹⁰ km³
Average radius: 58,232 km
Average diameter: 116,464 km
Mean density: 0.687 g/cm³
Escape velocity: 35.5 km/s
Surface gravity: 10.44 m/s²
Natural satellites: 60
Rings? – Yes
Semimajor axis: 1,433,530,000 km
Orbit period: 10,759.22 days
Perihelion: 1,352,550,000 km
Aphelion: 1,514,500,000 km
Mean orbital velocity: 9.69 km/s
Orbit inclination: 2.485°
Orbit eccentricity: 0.0565
Sidereal rotation period: 10.656 hours
Length of day: 10.656 hours
Axial tilt: 26.73°
Discovery: Known since prehistoric times
Minimum distance from Earth: 1,195,500,000 km
Maximum distance from Earth: 1,658,500,000 km
Maximum apparent diameter from Earth: 20.1 arc seconds
Minimum apparent diameter from Earth: 14.5 arc seconds
Maximum visual magnitude: 0.43

We’ve written many articles about Saturn for Universe Today. Here’s an article about the rotation of Saturn, and here’s an article about the atmosphere of Saturn.

If you’d like more info on Saturn, check out Hubblesite’s News Releases about Saturn. And here’s a link to the homepage of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which is orbiting Saturn.

We’ve also recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast just about Saturn. Listen here, Episode 59: Saturn.