Planet
Saturn
A tilted, ringed giant with seasons that each last seven years.
Saturn spins in about 10.7 hours and takes 29.4 Earth years to circle the Sun. Its axis is tilted 26.73 degrees, much like Earth's, so it has seasons, each lasting more than seven Earth years. Its rings and hundreds of moons all orbit in step with its gravity.
How it moves
- Saturn rotates once every 10.656 hours, the second-shortest day of any planet.
- It orbits the Sun every 10,755.7 days (29.45 Earth years) at an average of 9.67 km/s.
- A 26.73-degree axial tilt gives Saturn seasons, each more than seven Earth years long.
- Earth overtakes Saturn every 378.09 days (synodic period), producing its yearly retrograde loop in our sky.
- Each of Saturn's rings orbits the planet at a different speed.
Facts
- Mean radius
- 58,232 km
- Mass
- 5.683e+26 kg
- Surface gravity
- 11.19 m/s²
- Rotation period
- 10.656 hours
- Orbital period
- 10,755.699 days
- Average distance from the Sun
- 9.53707032 AU
- Eccentricity
- 0.052
- Axial tilt
- 26.73°
- Mean orbital speed
- 9.67 km/s
- Known moons
- 293
- Discovered
- Known since antiquity
Saturn's average density is lower than water's, the only planet for which that is true.
Sources: nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov, science.nasa.gov, science.nasa.gov