Atmosphere
Hydrogen and helium with pale golden ammonia clouds and a strange six-sided jet stream at its north pole.
Distance from Earth today
1262.3M km
In astronomical units
8.438 AU
Light travel time
1h 10m
Overview.
Saturn is the second-largest planet, famous for its dazzling ring system that stretches about 280,000 km across.
It is so light for its size that it would float in a bathtub big enough to hold it.
- Diameter
- 116,460 km
- Distance from Sun
- 1.43B km
- Year
- 29.4 Earth years
- Day
- 10h 33m
- Gravity
- 1.07 g
- Moons
- 146
The real Saturn
Through spacecraft eyes.
Saturn and its intricate rings in a natural-color mosaic of 126 images captured by Cassini.
Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute
Surface & interior
No solid surface; deep inside, pressure turns hydrogen into a liquid metal around a rocky core.
Moons & rings
At least 146 moons, including Titan (thick atmosphere, methane lakes) and Enceladus (geysers of water ice).
Missions.
- Pioneer 11 (1979)
- Voyager 1 & 2 (1980–81)
- Cassini–Huygens (2004–17)
- Dragonfly to Titan (planned)
Wow facts.
- Saturn’s rings are only about 10 m thick in places.
- Its density is lower than water.
- Winds near its equator reach 1,800 km/h.
Yana asks
Where did Saturn’s rings come from — and will they last forever?
Cover: artistic illustration. Spacecraft images and radar visualizations: credited NASA mission data.