Overview
With it’s beautiful rings, Saturn is truly the “Jewel of our Solar System”. No other planet is compared to it in terms of beauty and the awe Saturn inspires when it comes to it’s rings.
Classification
Like Jupiter, Saturn is a gas giant. Gas giants are mostly made up of gas. They may or may not have an actual core in the center. These planets are huge in size.
Size
At 9 times wider than Earth, Saturn can fit 760 Earths inside of it. It has a radius of 36,183.7 miles, making Saturn the 2nd largest planet in the Solar System.
Rotation
Position
Saturn is the 6th planet from the Sun. Because Saturn is 886 million miles away from the Sun, it takes 80 minute for sunlight to get to Saturn. Saturn’s tilt is close to that of Earth’s. This means it has seasons, unlike planets like Jupiter, Venus and Mercury. Saturn maintains a oval shaped orbit.
Structure
Saturn actually has a core, unlike Jupiter. It’s dense core is made of iron and nickel that is surrounded by rocks. This is solid due to the intense pressure and heat. Saturn’s core is also 10 to 20 times the entire Earth itself.
The mantel surrounds the core and is a layer of liquid hydrogen.
Like Jupiter, Saturn doesn’t have any real surface. Instead the planet is mostly gas and liquid. The core is surrounded by an ocean that is under the thick atmosphere.
Saturn is second to Jupiter when it comes to overall mass. Saturn has also 95 times the mass of Earth.
Saturn has 1.1 times Earth’s gravity. This is not as great as Jupiter’s gravity.
Atmosphere
Saturn’s atmosphere is made up of 96.3% molecular hydrogen, 3.25% helium, and .45% methane, ammonia, hydrogen deuteride, ethane, ammonia ice aerosols, water ice aerosols, and ammonia hydrosulfide aerosols.
The atmosphere on Saturn is full of faintly striped clouds, jet streams and storms. Saturn’s color is a mixture of yellows, browns, and greys.
Winds reach up to 1,090 miles per hour in the upper atmosphere at the equator. In comparison, the strongest hurricane-force winds on Earth reach only 245.5 miles per hour. On Saturn’s north pole there is a hexagonal jet stream. The winds in this jet stream are about 200-mile-per-hour. This is a completely unique feature found only on Saturn. The hexagonal jet stream at the north pole is big enough to almost fit 4 Earths. It is 60 miles inside Saturn’s atmosphere. The cause of this phenomena has yet to be fully explained, but it could be from shallow jet streams.
Every Saturn year giant storms appear. Scientists believe this is because of the presence of water vapor. The water cools down the planet by stopping the warm air from rising. This causes the the atmosphere to sink thus creating the gigantic storms.
Moons and Rings
Saturn has 53 confirmed moons, with about 9 waiting to be confirmed.
Saturn’s moons are named after the Titans in Greek Mythology. Which is fitting because Saturn is the Roman king of the Titans and god of Time as well as being Jupiter’s. Saturn’s largest moon is Titan which is the second largest moon in the solar system. Other moons include Pan, Atlas, Iapetus, Enceladus and Prometheus. Each moon is incredibly unique.
Saturn has 7 rings made up of ice chunks from the size of dust to the size of a house. There are 3 rings that stand out – rings A, B, and C. Rings D-G are fainter. For the most part all the rings are close together. However, between ring A and ring B there is a 2,920 mile gap called the Cassini Division. The order of the rings moving from Saturn out is ring D, ring C, ring B, then the Cassini Division, ring A, ring F, ring G, and ring E.
Fun Facts
Saturn’s density is less than water, meaning that Saturn would float in a giant bathtub.