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Ten Things to Know About Saturn

1:A COLOSSAL PLANET

Nine Earths side by side would almost span Saturn’s diameter. That doesn’t include Saturn’s rings.

2: IN DIM LIGHT

Saturn is the sixth planet from our Sun (a star) and orbits at a distance of about 886 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) from the Sun.

3: SHORT DAY, LONG YEAR

Saturn takes about 10.7 hours (no one knows precisely) to rotate on its axis once—a Saturn “day”—and 29 Earth years to orbit the sun.

4: GAS GIANT

Saturn is a gas-giant planet and therefore does not have a solid surface like Earth’s. But it might have a solid core somewhere in there.

5: HOT AIR

Saturn's atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen (H2) and helium (He).

6: MINI SOLAR SYSTEM

Saturn has 53 known moons with an additional nine moons awaiting confirmation of their discovery—that is a total of 62 moons.

7: GLORIOUS RINGS

Saturn has the most spectacular ring system, with seven rings and several gaps and divisions between them.

8: RARE DESTINATION

Few missions have visited Saturn: Pioneer 11 and Voyagers 1 and 2 flew by; But Cassini orbited Saturn 294 times from 2004 to 2017.

9: LIFELESS BEHEMOTH

Saturn cannot support life as we know it, but some of Saturn's moons have conditions that might support life.

10: ADD A DASH OF EARTH

About two tons of Saturn’s mass came from Earth—the Cassini spacecraft was intentionally vaporized in Saturn’s atmosphere in 2017.