Saturn

Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn was the Roman name for Cronus, the lord of the titans in Greek mythology.Saturn happens to be the root of the English word "Saturday."

Physical Characteristics of the Planet Saturn
Saturn is a gas giant made up mostly of hydrogen and helium. Saturn is the second largestplanet, big enough to hold more than 760 Earths, and is more massive than any other planet except Jupiter, roughly 95 times Earth's mass. However, Saturn has the lowest density of all the planets, anOrbit & Rotation:
Average Distance from the Sun
Metric: 1,426,725,400 km
By Comparison: 9.53707 times that of Earth
Perihelion (closest)
Metric: 1,349,467,000 kmBy Comparison: 9.177 times that of Earth Saturn rings
Aphelion (farthest)
Metric: 1,503,983,000 km
By Comparison:9.886 times that of Earth

Saturn's Moons
Saturn has at least 62 moons. Since the planet was named after Cronus, lord of the titans in Greek mythology, most of Saturn's moons are named after othertitans, their descendants, as well as after giants from Gallic, Inuit and Norse myths.
Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is slightly larger than Mercury, and is the second-largest moon in the solar systembehind Jupiter's moon Ganymede. Titan is veiled under a very thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere that might be like what Earth's was long ago, before life. While the Earth's atmosphere extends only about37 miles (60 kilometers) into space, Titan's reaches nearly 10 times as far.
These moons can possess bizarre features. Pan and Atlas are shaped like flying saucers, Iapetus has one side as bright assnow and one side as dark as coal, and Enceladus shows evidence of "ice volcanism," spewing out water and other chemicals. A number of these satellites, such as Prometheus and Pandora, are shepherd...