Space News & Blog Articles

lanet Profile: Saturn

Overview

• Type: Gas giant
• Position: 6th planet from the Sun
• Distance from Sun: ~1.4 billion km (~886 million miles)
• Diameter: ~120,536 km (74,900 miles)
• Moons: 145 confirmed (as of 2025), including Titan and Enceladus
• Rings: Most extensive and visually striking ring system in the Solar System

Atmosphere and Composition

• Primary Gases: Hydrogen (~96%), Helium (~3%), with traces of methane, ammonia, and other gases.
• Cloud Layers: Ammonia crystals, ammonium hydrosulfide, and water ice/clouds at deeper levels.
• Winds: Up to 1,800 km/h (1,100 mph) near the equator, some of the fastest in the Solar System.

Rings

• Composition: Ice, rock, and dust particles, ranging in size from microscopic grains to objects several meters across.
• Structure: Divided into several rings (A, B, C, etc.) with gaps like the Cassini Division.
• Origin: Likely remnants of shattered moons, comets, or asteroids.

Magnetosphere

• Magnetic Field: Strong, but less intense than Jupiter’s.
• Auroras: Stunning displays occur near Saturn's poles due to interactions with solar wind.

Moons

• Titan: Saturn’s largest moon, with a thick atmosphere and liquid hydrocarbon lakes.
• Enceladus: Known for its icy surface, water plumes, and potential subsurface ocean, making it a prime candidate for extraterrestrial life.
• Other notable moons: Mimas, Rhea, Dione, Tethys, and Iapetus.

Orbital and Rotational Characteristics

• Orbit Period: ~29.5 Earth years
• Rotation Period: ~10 hours and 42 minutes (a day on Saturn)
• Axial Tilt: 26.7°, giving it seasons similar to Earth’s but much longer due to its long orbit.

Exploration

• Pioneer 11: First spacecraft to fly by Saturn (1979).
• Voyager 1 & 2: Provided detailed images and data in the early 1980s.
• Cassini-Huygens Mission: Orbited Saturn from 2004–2017, studying its system extensively and landing a probe on Titan.

Fun Facts

• Density: Saturn is the least dense planet, less dense than water—it would float in a large enough body of water.
• Storms: Features massive storms, including a persistent hexagonal-shaped storm at its north pole.
• Visibility: Easily visible from Earth with the naked eye, often appearing golden in color.

Saturn continues to be a source of wonder and scientific discovery, especially with its iconic rings and the potential for life on moons like Titan and Enceladus.

The James Webb Space Telescope's ancient "little red dot" galaxies have been seen as a sign of "broken cosmology." Feeding supermassive black holes may have come to the rescue.

Director Fede Alvarez spoke to Empire about fixing the controversial CGI of Rook in Alien: Romulus.

Goodnight Gaia. The European Space Agency star-tracking satellite ceased operations on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, after 12 years of mapping the Milky Way.

A composition photo of images taken during the lunar occultation on Jan. 4 captures the progression of the moon moving in front of Saturn, briefly hiding it from viewers on Earth.

From magnification to light-gathering, here’s how to make the decision between buying a telescope or a monocular for stargazing and astronomy.

In its final episode, Skeleton Crew sticks the landing with lots of action and some genuinely tense moments, but its answers are limited.

There is an increasing willingness in the space sector to tackle the problem of space debris. Yet much of the required technology to mitigate or prevent its risks is still missing.

A massive white dwarf and a sun-like "blue lurker" star tell a remarkable story of what was once a triple-star system in the M67 cluster.

As we approach solar maximum, something strange is happening to the sun's magnetic field. We explore this flip in polarity in more detail and look at the effects it could have on Earth.

Hot Jupiters may not be the lonely giants scientists once thought they were.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket just launched lunar landers built by Firefly Aerospace and Tokyo-based company ispace. What's next for the two craft?

SpaceX is set to launch the seventh test flight of its Starship megarocket on Thursday (Jan. 16) at 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT), and you can watch the action live.

Three InCubed satellites have launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, highlighting ESA’s role as partner to industry and its support for business and technology innovation.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched lunar landers for Firefly Aerospace and the Japanese company ispace early this morning (Jan. 15).

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander pictured atop a bespoke payload canister, which encased ispace’s Resilience lunar lander prior to encapsulation inside SpaceX’s Falcon 9 payload fairings. Image: SpaceX

For the first time in lunar exploration, two robotic landers, from two different nations launched to the Moon on one rocket.

The moon is about to gain its first tiny house. Launching on a Japanese lunar lander is the "Moonhouse," a project by Mikael Genberg 25 years in the making.

NASA is sending a suite of science and technology demonstrations on Firefly Aerospace's Ghost Riders in the Sky mission to the surface of the moon.

The Rubin Observatory will eventually hold the world's largest digital camera. It's therefore a good sign it has aced its first image test.