Basic Facts on Saturn
Until the discovery of the planet Uranus in 1871, Saturn, the sixth planet away from the Sun, was thought to be the outermost of the worlds in the solar system. Saturn got its name from the god of time and agriculture because of the long time it requires to complete a full orbit of the Sun. Saturn is an odd planet in many ways, including the fact that it would float in water because of its low density.
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Size, Rotation, and Revolution
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Saturn is the second largest planet, with only Jupiter larger. Saturn has a diameter at its equator of 74,130 miles, meaning that you could line nine planets side by side the same size as Earth across the face of Saturn. One day on Saturn lasts just 10 hours and 14 minutes because of the planet's rapid rotation on its axis. Saturn needs 29.5 years to revolve once around the Sun.
Composition
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The surface of Saturn is most likely gaseous, with the inner core a mixture of rock and iron. Water, methane gas, and ammonia probably surround the inner hard core, and the next layer may be liquid hydrogen. The atmosphere of Saturn, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration website, is like syrup, mixing hydrogen and helium. Where the outer atmosphere begins and the surface ends would be difficult to tell; life as we know it could not exist under such conditions.
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Rings
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Saturn possesses visible rings at its equator composed of fine ice particles, some that are microscopic and others as large as 10 feet across. Saturn's seven rings consist of numerous smaller ringlets, with the larger ringlets being as far across as 180,000 miles. Distances as large as 2,000 miles separate some of these ringlets, but the rings are so thin that when they line up directly with Earth, they remain unseen. Galileo, the Italian astronomer, first viewed the rings in the early part of the 1600s.
Moons
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At least 25 moons as wide as at least 6 miles, with some much larger, orbit Saturn. The moon Titan is the largest in the solar system; it even exceeds Mercury in size. Titan has an average temperature of minus 289 degrees F, and it may actually rain liquid methane there. Other large moons of Saturn include Mimas, Hyperion, and Tethys.
Mass, Tilt, and Distance
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Saturn has a mass 95 times that of the Earth, but the gravity on Saturn is just 1.08 times that of our planet. A 200 lb. person on Earth would weigh 216 lbs. on Saturn. The tilt of the planet on its axis gives Saturn seasons, each lasting about 7.5 years. At its furthest point from the Sun, Saturn is 941,070,000 miles away. The closest the giant planet gets to the Sun is 840,440,000 miles, which means that Saturn receives one-eightieth of the sunlight that Earth gets.
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