Saturn Facts

Saturn Facts
Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system and it is the sixth planet away from the Sun. Saturn is considered to be a 'gas giant' planet, with an iron-nickel core surrounded by metallic hydrogen, followed by a liquid hydrogen layer, a liquid helium layer, and a gaseous outer layer. Saturn is unique because of its ring system which includes nine main rings (continuous) and ice particles and dust that make up three arcs (non-continuous). There are 62 known moons orbiting the planet Saturn, and its largest moon Titan is the 2nd largest moon in the entire solar system.
Interesting Saturn Facts:
Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system following Jupiter.
Of all the planets in our solar system Saturn is the farthest from Earth that is visible to the naked eye.
Saturn is so massive in size that it could hold 760 Earths.
Saturn has such a low density that it is less dense than water, meaning it could float. Saturn in the only planet less dense than water.
Saturn is the second fastest spinning planet following Jupiter.
Saturn spins so fast that it bulges at its equator. This also causes it to have flattened poles and makes the planet wider at its equator.
The magnetic field of Saturn is approximately 578 times stronger than Earth's magnetic field.
The core of Saturn is believed to be as much as 20 times as large as Earth's core.
Saturn is located 885,904,700 miles from the Sun.
Saturn's mass is 95.16 times that of Earth.
The surface temperature of Saturn is -139°C.
As the 5th brightest object in our solar system Saturn can be seen with the naked eye, and binoculars or simple telescopes can make viewing much clearer.
Saturn's moon Titan is the planet's largest moon, the second largest moon in the solar system, and is even larger than the planet Mercury.
The first person to view Saturn's rings was Galileo Galilei in 1610. He viewed the rings through his telescope, but what he saw was not clear enough to properly identify the features of the rings.
The first astronomer to identify Saturn's ring(s) as flat was Christiaan Huygens, a Dutchman who suggested the ring was flat (he thought there was only one ring).
Pioneer 11 was the first spacecraft to reach Saturn. It flew within 13,700 miles of the planet in 1979, discovering the outer two rings.
The Voyager later helped identify that the rings were composed of ringlets. This spacecraft also helped to determine the first nine moons.
There have been four spacecraft from Earth to visit and orbit Saturn including Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, and Cassini-Huygens.
The winds on Saturn can reach 800 kilometers an hour, making it a very windy planet.
Because of the extremely powerful magnetic field of Saturn, small energy particles become trapped in its atmosphere. This makes it a planet with very high levels of radiation.
While the Earth takes one year to orbit the Sun, Saturn by comparison takes 29.5 years.


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