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Saturn
When you have finished this page, try the Saturn Quiz.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun.
Saturn's orbit is between those of Jupiter and Uranus. Its mean distance from the sun is around 886 million miles or 1.43 billion kilometers , almost twice that of Jupiter. It takes Saturn about 29 1/2 years to orbit or revolve around the sun.
Saturn looks like a yellow star in space. When viewed through a telescope, it is seen as a golden sphere, crossed by a series of lightly colored bands parallel to the equator.
Saturn is covered with a thick atmosphere made up of hydrogen and helium.. Saturn's temperature is believed to be about -270 degrees Fahrenheit or -168 degrees Celsius. The wind blows at high speeds up to 1,100 mph or 1,770 kilometers per hour The strongest winds are found near the equator and blow mostly in an easterly direction. At higher latitudes, the velocity decreases.
Saturn's day is about 10 and one half hours. This rapid rotation makes the largest polar flattening among the planets.
Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system. Saturn's diameter is around 75,000 miles (120,000 kilometers . Its volume is more than 700 times the volume of the earth. Its mass is about 95 times that of the earth although less dense, making it lighter than water.
Although the ring system is about 168,000 miles or 270,000 kilometers in diameter, it is only some 330 ft (100 m) thick. From earth, the ring system looks like two bright outer rings, called A and B, separated by a dark space and a third inner ring called C. The D ring is nearest to the planet. The F Ring is a narrow feature just outside the A Ring. Beyond that are two rings named G and E.
Saturn has eighteen known moons. Pan, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Telesto, Calypso, Dione, Helene, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Phoebe. More than a dozen others have been thought to exist.
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