Ring Around the Ringed Planet: Facts About Saturn to Deepen Your Knowledge

Now we’ll take a trip to the second gas giant and sixth planet in the solar system — Saturn. This planet might be well-known for its elaborate rings, but there is a lot more about this massive gas giant that you might’ve missed out on. Here are 10 facts about Saturn you need to know. 

10 Interesting Facts About Saturn

Dive into this set of planet Saturn facts and find out more about this extraordinary planet:

1. Saturn Can Float in Water

If you can find a body of water big enough, Saturn would float in it! This big gas giant is less dense than water, so while you won’t fit it in your bathtub, it could theoretically float on water. 

2. Saturn Isn’t Round

Saturn spins incredibly fast. One day on the planet only takes about 10 hours. That speed also causes the planet to flatten slightly, so it’s not round like most other celestial bodies in our solar system. If you squish a soccer ball so it deforms a little, you’ll have a good idea of what Saturn looks like. 

3. Saturn Has Had Four Visitors Since We Started Launching Probes

We’ve sent four spacecraft to take a peek at the ringed giant. The first was Pioneer 11, which NASA launched in 1973 to take advantage of a rare outer planetary alignment that let us study the big gas giants. Then we had flybys from Voyager I and II. Most recently, we’ve also had the Cassini-Huygens mission that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017 before burning up in the giant’s atmosphere. 

4. The Age of Saturn’s Rings Is Unknown

Saturn’s rings might date back to the solar system’s origins some 4.5 billion years ago — or they might be a lot younger. Some astronomers theorize that the planet got its rings when Saturn’s gravity ripped apart a massive ice moon. We’re not sure where the rings came from. 

5. Saturn Can Be Seen With the Naked Eye

Saturn is the last planet you can spot with the naked eye. You’ll need a telescope or an incredible zoom lens to see its iconic rings, but you can see the planet’s glow at night without the aid of anything. 

6. Saturn’s Moons May Have Life

Life as we know it couldn’t survive on Saturn, but we might find it somewhere else. Saturn’s moon — Enceladus — might provide the right conditions for life to survive outside our home planet. 

7. Jupiter and Saturn Together Make up Most of the Solar System

Jupiter and Saturn are both massive gas giants. Together, they make up 92% of the planetary mass in our solar system. If you add the other two gas giants — Neptune and Uranus — you’ve got 99.5% of the solar system’s planetary mass. The four inner planets make up barely half a percent.

8. Saturn Has an Incredibly Hot Core

Saturn might not have a surface, but it does have a rocky core that reaches incredible temperatures. The molten metal at the core can reach temperatures of more than 15,000 degrees F, hotter than the sun’s surface.

9. Saturn Has Some of the Fastest Winds in the Solar System

Saturn’s atmosphere and incredibly fast rotation allow for the creation of some of the fastest winds in the solar system. In the upper atmosphere, Saturn’s winds can reach 1,800 kilometers per hour (km/h) or 1,118 miles per hour (mph). For comparison, the Atlantic Ocean’s strongest hurricane only generated winds that moved at about 190 mph. 

10. Saturn — And Other Gas Giants — May Rain Diamonds

Chemists believe the unique balance of hydrogen and helium on Saturn may cause it to rain diamonds big enough for Hollywood stars to wear. Eventually, they melt as they sink toward the core, but there might be diamonds falling from the sky on these gas giants. 

11. Saturn Has Weird-Shaped Clouds

Saturn’s clouds are some of the most unique in the solar system. They mostly contain ammonia ice. Eventually, it mixes to create ammonium hydrosulfide ice and creates distinct layers. On Earth, clouds may resemble any abstract shape, but Saturn’s clouds are more hexagonal. This is caused by their makeup in addition to their high winds. 

Saturn’s hexagon lies on its north pole, and experts have been theorizing its shape for years — the winds in conjunction with its latitude and atmosphere are the best answers humans have so far. After several missions, including Cassini, imagery gave astronomers the most advanced insights we have so far. It changes color sometimes, from a light blue to somewhat yellowish. 

12. Saturn’s Colors Indicate its Composition

In pictures, most people associate Saturn with its orange color. Where does this come from? This is because of its high sulfur content, which Jupiter also has, but in lower quantities. The various colors within the orange zones reflect where gases are rising in the colder regions and falling in the warmer areas. Sunlight exposure could also change how people perceive these colors.

13. Saturn’s Moon Reflects Pop Culture

Mimas is one of Saturn’s many moons. It is almost completely frozen over. NASA scientists report water ice is the notable feature of this moon with little left to give it any reason for fame. So, how could it possibly be related to something in modern pop culture?

Mimas features a sizable crater on its surface. Because of the water ice, its gray appearance alongside this massive hole resembles the Death Star from Star Wars. Numerous other craters speckle it, giving it a golf ball-like texture.

Saturn Properties & Information

• Location in solar system: 6th Planet from the sun, 2nd outer planet.
• Distance from Sun: 9.58 astronomical units (AU) or 1,426,666,422 kilometers (km).
• Composition: Primarily hydrogen and helium.
• Size: 120,536 km (74,897.6 miles).
• Surface: No true surface.
• Structure: Gas giant, dense iron and nickel core.
• Color: Various, from black and white to red, green and blue. 
• Atmosphere: 75% hydrogen and 25% helium with traces of other elements. 
• Moons: 82
• Temperature: Minus 139 degrees C (or minus 218.2 degrees F).
• Orbital period: 29.5 years.
• Rotation period: 10 hours, 42 minutes.

Who Discovered Saturn?

As one of the planets you can see with the naked eye, it is challenging determining who may have first discovered Saturn. Galileo gets the credit for the first official observation of Saturn in 1610, but his telescope was fairly crude compared to today’s standards. He could see the planet’s rings but couldn’t figure out what they were. Decades later, a Dutch astronomer named Christiaan Huygens used a more advanced telescope to finally determine that Saturn had rings in 1659. This astronomer also lent his name to the Cassini-Huygen mission that spent years orbiting Saturn. 

What Is Saturn Known For?

Saturn is most commonly known for its extensive collection of rings. The Cassini probe provided us with high-resolution photos of the rings before the machine’s fiery demise in 2017. The rings aren’t solid. They’re made up of millions of fragments of stone and ice trapped in orbit around the gas giant. The planet is also known for its incredibly short day, completing a rotational period in just 10 hours and 42 minutes. On the flip side, the planet’s orbital period is substantially longer than Earth’s. One year on Saturn is equal to 29.5 years on Earth — so if you haven’t reached your 30th birthday here, you’re still less than a year old on Saturn.

What Makes Saturn Unique?

One thing about Saturn that makes it incredibly unique is its density. Despite its massive size, Saturn is less dense than water. You won’t find a pool big enough to float the planet, though. It’s also so huge that you could fit 760 planets the size of Earth inside it with room to spare, though it only has as much mass as 95 of our little blue marbles.

What Is Saturn’s Mythology?

Many of the planets are tied to a mythological tale. In Saturn’s case, the planet is named after the Roman god of the same name. The Greek equivalent is Kronos. These figures are known for two drastically different things.

In Roman mythology, Saturn is a harvest god, instructing people how and what to farm. Because of his aid, growers would have a bountiful harvest, associating him also with wealth. This is why many used to celebrate a Thanksgiving-style festival called Saturnalia, which focused on bounty and gifts. This happened around the New Year, connecting Saturn with the passage of time. Saturn is also associated with abundance and freedom.

These time-related associations are also more closely tied to Kronos’ stories, the god known for consuming his children. However, there are myths associated with Saturn depicting him in a similar way. Consider the scythe Saturn may have wielded during his agricultural labors and how Father Time carries a similar tool.

In Greek and Roman mythology, many stories are slightly varied, synthesized, and therefore, inconsistent. However, it is irrefutable that no matter how these manifest, he is one of the most important figures of these mythoi.

All About Saturn

Next, we have a planet named for Saturn’s father that has also become the butt of many jokes over the years — Uranus. Our journey through the solar system’s known planets is nearly complete, but we’re not done yet.

What fact about Saturn did you enjoy learning? Let us know in the comments below!

Featured Image Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (GSFC), M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL Team

This article was originally published on 8/25/2020 and was updated 11/18/2024 to add more information for readers.