GENERAL INFORMATION ON SATURN The sixth planet from the Sun is Saturn in solar system. After Jupiter it is largest planet. The beautiful rings are mainly made of ice chunks and some rock which their sizes are different from a fingernail to the size of one car. Saturn has a composition of mostly hydrogen and helium gas. We can see saturn without telescope, but for watching its ring we should use low power telescope

 

SIZE AND SHAPE Saturn’s diameter is 74,898 miles (120, 536 km) at equator of cloud tops. This number is 9.4 times of the Earth’s diameter. It means that Saturn can contain 764 Earths in it. The most flatened planet is saturn in solar system. Its polar diameter is 67,560 miles (108,728 km). So diference between its cloud top diameter and its polar diameter is about 10%.Due to its gaseous composition and fast rotation it is flattened.

 

RINGS As said we can see beautiful rings of saturn by telescope and it is done first time by Galileo in the 17th century. The wide bright rings is made of mainly ice chunk and some rocks, ranging from about 185000 miles (300000 Km) as thick ones to very thin ones in which is about 6 miles (1Km) in diameter.

 

MASS, GRAVITY AND DENSITY Mass of Saturn is about 5.69.1026Kg and this is 95 times more than mass of Earth, but its gravity is only 1.08 time of Earth’s gravity. This matter is due to its largeness (gravitation is proportional to mass and inverse of radius squared). One who has 100 pound weight will be 108 pounds on saturn. Saturn’s density is less than water and it is the only planet with this low density in solar system.

 

LENGTH OF A DAY AND YEAR ON SATURN One day on Saturn is 10.2 Earth’s hours and one year will take 29.46 years of Earth.

 

ORBIT AND DISTANCE FROM THE SUN Distance of saturn from the Sun is 9.539 A. U in average. It mean that this distance is 9 times more than distance between the Earth and the Sun. The farthest point in its orbit called aphelion is about 1,503,000,000 Km and its perihelion distance (closest point to the Sun near Jupiter’s orbit) is 1,348,000,000 Km from the Sun.

 

TEMPERATURE ON SATURN The average temperature over clouds is 88 k (-185o or –290oF)

 

MOONS In has dozens of moon in which 33 of them known in  August 2004. Its 18 named moons are Titan (the biggest), Rhea, Iapetus. Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, Mimas, Hyperion, Janus, Phoebe, Epimetheus, Pandora, pometheus, Telesto, Atals, Helene, Calypso, and Pan. Its smallest and remaining ones are not named.

 

SPACECRAFT VISITS Pioneer (11) visited saturn in 1979. And voyager 1 and voyager 2 also visisted saturn. And one spacecraft Cassini is for visiting staturn’s rings will arrive in 2004.

 

SATURN’S NAME AND SYMBOL For Roman god of agriculture Saturn is named.