Saturn Facts

Saturn is the second largest planets in our solar system.

Saturn is named after Saturnus, a Roman God of harvest and agriculture.

With a diameter of around 74,898 miles; more than nine earths when arranged in a straight line, would fit in Saturn.

On average, Saturn is 886 million miles from the Sun.

Saturn has a rocky core, but primarily consists of liquid metallic hydrogen.

Because Saturn is a gas giant, parts of the planet rotate at different speeds.

Saturn is the least dense among all known planets; having a weight of 0.687 g/cm, which is in fact even lighter than water. It means that it would float, if placed in a water body of a size bigger than itself.

One rotation at the equator, a “day”, takes 10 hours and 14 minutes. At the poles, it takes 25 minutes longer.

Winds on Saturn are often well above 1,100 miles per hour.

The temperature on Saturn is around -180 degrees Celsius.

Because it doesn’t have a rocky surface like Earth, centrifugal forces cause Saturn to bulge in the middle and flatten at the poles.

Saturn has 60 known moons, and there are many more yet to be discovered. Titan is the largest of Saturn's moons, and is larger than Mercury and Pluto. Titan is also the second largest moon in the solar system.

Saturn is extremely hot and sends off more energy than it receives from the Sun.

Saturn has a massive magnetic field.

Saturn is visible in the night sky with the naked eye.

“Spokes” have been found running perpendicular to some of the rings of Saturn, but scientists have been unable to determine the cause of them.

The day of the week, Saturday, derives its name from Saturn.

There were four spacecrafts that were sent to Saturn to gather information. First was Pioneer 11 in 1979, which orbited within 20,000 km of Saturn. Then came Voyager 1 in 1980 and Voyager 2 in 1981, that sent images of Saturn's system that included the rings, moons, and satellites. Later in 2004, Cassini entered its orbit and sent useful information and images of Saturn and Titan.