Saturn

Also known as ♄, Sol VI, Sol 6

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth of the average density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive. Even though Saturn is almost as big as Jupiter, Saturn has less than a third of its mass. Saturn orbits the Sun at a distance of , with an orbital period of 29.45 years.

OverviewAI-generated

Saturn is a gas giant and outer planet in the outer Solar System. It orbits the Sun and is part of the outer Solar System. The planet is represented by the notation ♄. It is named after Saturn and Wu Xing.

Saturn has a radius of 60268 and a mass of 568360. Its density is 0.867. The semi-major axis of its orbit is 1429394069. It has an orbital eccentricity of 0.05386179 and an orbital inclination of 5.51. The argument of periapsis is 92.59887831, and the longitude of ascending node is 113.66242448. Its orbital period is 10757.7365, and its synodic period is 378.0944. The planet moves at a speed of 10.183. It has a flattening of 0.09796.

Saturn has a magnetosphere. It has child astronomical bodies including Titan, Pan, Daphnis, and Atlas. It is referenced by 2,201 other encyclopedia articles.

Synthesized by Vinony from 25 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, PubMed, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Key facts

Planet.name: Saturn
Planet.symbol: 24px|♄|class=skin-invert
Planet.image: 300px
Planet.caption: Saturn and its prominent rings, as captured by the Cassini orbiter
Planet.background: Wheat
Planet.named_after: Saturn
Planet.adjectives: Saturnian , Cronian / Kronian
Planet.epoch: J2000.0
Planet.time_periastron: 2032-Nov-29
Planet.synodic_period: 378.09 days
Planet.satellites: 285 with formal designations; innumerable additional moonlets.
Planet.circumference: (equatorial)
Planet.density: Earths
Planet.rotation: 10 h 32 m 36 s; 10.5433 hours, 10 h 39 m; 10.7 hours
Planet.axial_tilt: 26.73°
Planet.right_asc_north_pole: 40.589°;
Planet.declination: 83.537°
Planet.temp_name1: 1 bar

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

2,062 papers

Saturn: atmosphere, ionosphere, and magnetosphere.ReviewScience (New York, N.Y.) · 2010Gombosi TI, Ingersoll APDOI: 10.1126/science.1179119
Geologic Constraints on the Formation and Evolution of Saturn's Mid-Sized Moons.ReviewSpace science reviews · 2024Rhoden AR, Ferguson SN, Bottke W et al.DOI: 10.1007/s11214-024-01084-z
An evolving view of Saturn's dynamic rings.ReviewScience (New York, N.Y.) · 2010Cuzzi JN, Burns JA, Charnoz S et al.DOI: 10.1126/science.1179118
Saturn's F ring is intermittently shepherded by Prometheus.Science advances · 2024Cuzzi JN, Marouf EA, French RG et al.DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adl6601
Saturn's largest ring.Nature · 2009Verbiscer AJ, Skrutskie MF, Hamilton DPDOI: 10.1038/nature08515
How Saturn got its tilt and its rings.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2022El Moutamid MDOI: 10.1126/science.abq3184
Saturn's moon Mimas may have a vast hidden ocean.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Tillman NTDOI: 10.1073/pnas.2519269122
Long-lasting, deep effect of Saturn's giant storms.Science advances · 2023Li C, de Pater I, Moeckel C et al.DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adg9419

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Instance of: outer planet
Part of: outer Solar System
Has part: magnetosphere of Saturn
Named after: Wu Xing
Demonym: زُحَلِيٌّ
Area: 42700000000
Location: outer Solar System
Parent body: Sun
Distance from Earth: 1660000000
Diameter: 120536
Radius: 54364
Mass: 568360
Orbital period: 10757.7365
Image: 8423 20181 1saturn2016.jpg
Speed: 9.137
Significant event: planetary flyby

Show 31 more facts

notation: ♄
Commons category: Saturn (planet)
topic's main category: Category:Saturn
orbital eccentricity: 0.05386179
Commons gallery: Saturn
semi-major axis of an orbit: 9.554909
argument of periapsis: 92.59887831
longitude of ascending node: 113.66242448
orbital inclination: 0.93
flattening: 0.09796
synodic period: 378.0944
density: 0.867
periapsis: 9.04807635
apoapsis: 10.11595804
albedo: 0.342
on focus list of Wikimedia project: Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
magnetic moment: 45999999999999996007022592
absolute magnitude: 28
epoch: J2000.0
surface gravity: 8.96
mean anomaly: 317.020
volume as quantity: 827130000000000
temperature: 134
angular diameter: 20.1
apparent magnitude: -0.24
different from: Saturn
Unicode character: ♄
Stack Exchange tag: astronomy.stackexchange.com/tags/saturn
topic has template: Template:Saturn
IPA transcription: zaˈtʊʁn
rotation period: 10.7

Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

~31 min read

Encyclopedic overview

27 sections

Contents

Name and symbol
Physical characteristics
Internal structure
Rotation
Oblateness
Atmosphere
Cloud layers
Hexagonal cloud patterns
Magnetosphere
Orbit and observation
Observation
Natural satellites
Planetary rings
History of observation and exploration
Pre-telescopic observation
Telescopic pre-spaceflight observations
Spaceflight missions
''Pioneer 11'' flyby
''Voyager'' flybys
''Cassini–Huygens'' spacecraft
Possible future missions
In fiction
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
External links

Saturn's interior is thought to be composed of a rocky core, surrounded by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen, an intermediate layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium, and an outer layer of gas. Saturn has a pale yellow hue, due to ammonia crystals in its upper atmosphere. An electrical current in the metallic hydrogen layer is thought to give rise to Saturn's planetary magnetic field, which is weaker than Earth's, but has a magnetic moment 580 times that of Earth because of Saturn's greater size. Saturn's magnetic field strength is about a twentieth that of Jupiter. The outer atmosphere is generally bland and lacking in contrast, although long-lived features can appear. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach .

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Saturn” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.