Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest planet in our solar system.Adorned with thousands of beautiful ringlets, Saturn is unique among the planets. It is not the only planet to have rings – made of chunks of ice and rock – but none are as spectacular or as complicated as Saturn's.

Most of Saturn is not solid, but gaseous, making it difficult to distinguish between its atmosphere and its planetary mass. At the upper reaches of Saturn's atmosphere, patches of ammonia, methane and other compounds are visible among the mixture of helium and hydrogen.

At Saturn's center is a dense core of metals like iron and nickel surrounded by rocky material and other compounds solidified by intense pressure and heat. It is enveloped by liquid metallic hydrogen inside a layer of liquid hydrogen –similar to Jupiter's core but considerably smaller.

10 Need-To-Know Things About Saturn

A COLOSSAL PLANET

Nine Earths side by side would almost span Saturn’s diameter. That doesn’t include Saturn’s rings.

IN DIM LIGHT

Saturn is the sixth planet from our Sun (a star) and orbits at a distance of about 886 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) from the Sun.

SHORT DAY, LONG YEAR

Saturn takes about 10.7 hours (no one knows precisely) to rotate on its axis once—a Saturn “day”—and 29 Earth years to orbit the sun.

GAS GIANT

Saturn is a gas-giant planet and therefore does not have a solid surface like Earth’s. But it might have a solid core somewhere in there.

HOT AIR

Saturn's atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen (H2) and helium (He).

MINI SOLAR SYSTEM

Saturn has 53 known moons with an additional 29 moons awaiting confirmation of their discovery—that is a total of 82 moons.

GLORIOUS RINGS

Saturn has the most spectacular ring system, with seven rings and several gaps and divisions between them.

RARE DESTINATION

Few missions have visited Saturn: Pioneer 11 and Voyagers 1 and 2 flew by; But Cassini orbited Saturn 294 times from 2004 to 2017.

LIFELESS BEHEMOTH

Saturn cannot support life as we know it, but some of Saturn's moons have conditions that might support life.

ADD A DASH OF EARTH

About two tons of Saturn’s mass came from Earth—the Cassini spacecraft was intentionally vaporized in Saturn’s atmosphere in 2017.