Saturn

Known for its amazing rings, Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun and the second largest planet in our Solar System. Because it spins so quickly, Saturn bulges at its equator and is thinner at its poles.

Image at right: Saturn (courtesy of NASA).

Saturn formed more than four billion years ago. New research suggests that gas-giant planets form soon after their stars. As Saturn gathered material from the solar nebula, bits of heavy rock came to where the planet formed, eventually falling into the middle of the planet. Saturn has a small core of rock and ice, surrounded by a thick layer of metallic liquid hydrogen and a gaseous outer layer.

Features

: Image showing Saturn's major rings. (Courtesy of NASA)

Like Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, Saturn is a gas giant. It is mostly made of hydrogen and helium. Saturn has a complex system of rings that extend hundreds of thousands of miles from the planet. Billions of chunks of ice and rock form these rings.

Sixty known moons orbit Saturn. Titan is Saturn's largest moon and the Solar System's second biggest after Jupiter's Ganymede.

Explore more features of Saturn at Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn & Titan.

Missions

: The Cassini Spacecraft (Courtesy of NASA)

Three missions have visited the ringed planet - Pioneer 11 in 1979, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 in 1980 and 1981, and the Cassini-Huygens mission in 2004. The Cassini orbiter dropped the Huygens probe to explore Titan's atmosphere and surface. Each of these missions has taught us new and fascinating details about Saturn, its rings, and its moons.

Learn more at Missions to Saturn on NASA's website.

Myths, Stories, and More

The original king of the gods, Saturn heard a prophecy that one of his children would rise up and overthrow him. As a result, Saturn would regularly devour his children.

One day, his wife tricked Saturn into swallowing a stone instead of his son. Eventually, this son Jupiter overthrew Saturn and became the new king of the gods. Many of Saturn's moons also are named after members of this family of Greek supergods called the Titans.

Earth Matters

: Earth and Saturn Size Comparison (Courtesy of NASA)

Saturn is the farthest planet you can see without a telescope. It takes Saturn 30 Earth years to orbit the Sun, and rotates in less than 11 hours. While Earth's most noticeable feature is its oceans, Saturn is known for its rings.

Winds in Saturn's upper atmosphere can reach 1,118 miles (1,800 kilometers) an hour near the equator, while the fastest winds on Earth clock in at about 250 miles (400 kilometers) an hour. Saturn's moon, Titan, interests astronomers because it has a nitrogen-based atmosphere - just like Earth.

Learn more about why Saturn matters at cosmos4kids