Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system. With its large ring system, it is probably the most beautiful of them all! Saturn, like Jupiter, is made up of a
huge cluster of gases, containing slightly less helium, about 6% whereas Jupiter contains 10 percent, and is the only planet with a density less than that of water, 0.7%, which means that it might float. The rings around Saturn, however, are the most impressive. They consist of clumps of ice ranging from the size of a speck of dust to blocks of ice several metres across. The thickness of the rings is believed to be less than 500 metres, allowing the planet to be seen through them. The outermost rings are more than 150.000 km from the centre of Saturn. In theory, the rings could have originated from one or more moons that were never formed. Saturn has the most moons of all the planets, over 20, with Titan being the largest.
Saturn also has many violent storms, up to 1800 kilometres speed per hour.
Despite rotating slightly slower than Jupiter, Saturn is even more flattened at the poles.
Specifications
- Average distance from the Sun:1427 million kilometres
- Model: 1420 metres (from the Sun)
- Size:120,000km(diameter)
- Model: 12 cm (diameter)
- Orbital period around the Sun: 10759 days or 29.4 years.
- Mass:(kg.) 5.684 x 1027
- Surface temperature:17 degrees increasing in depth to 870 degrees
- Gravity: 28 times that of Earth
- Length of day: 10.2 hours
- Number of Moons: over 145 are known