by Zoeff

Saturn, named after the Roman god of the same name is a real exciting planet. Weighing in at 95 times the size of Earth, this massive planet is the second largest in our solar system, only beaten by Jupiter. This despite being only 1/8th the density of the Earth. Saturn is planet number 6 from the Sun and is classified as a gas giant.

Saturn is classified as a gas giant because it is believed to be made up mainly of gasses, these include a layer of metallic hydrogen, liquid hydrogen and liquid helium. There runs an electric charge through the hydrogen which is believed to give Jupiter its global magnetic field. This magnetic field is slightly weaker than the Earth’s. Even though Saturn is a gas giant, it may very well have a solid core behind all the gas. Saturn can have some pretty heavy weather. With wind speeds reaching as much as 1800 km/h, you would truly be in for a ride, should you suddenly fin yourself stuck on the outher reaches of Saturn.

Saturn is most known for its ring systems, which make it look the coolest of all the planets. Discovered by Galileio Galilei in 1610, The rings are mostly water ice particles combined with some rock and dust orbiting around the planet in large quantities making it look like a solid interconnected ring. The rings are only about 20 meters thick on average, and contain about 93% water. Scientists have two theories on how the rings were formed. The first one, originally made up by Eduoard Roche, suggests that the rings are remnants of a moon that crashed into Saturn, leaving only fragments left, which with time and gravity evolved into the ring system we have today. The second theory suggests that the rings are made of material from the time Jupiter itself was born.

In addition to its gigantic ring Saturn also has a lot of moons. It actually has 62 moons constantly orbiting it, which is just one less than that of our biggest planet, Jupiter. By far the biggest and most massive moon is Titan. Comprising over 90% of Saturn’s orbital mass, including the rings, this is the second-largest moon in the solar system, after Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. It is also larger than the planet Mercury.

Saturn is about 1,400,000,000 km from the Sun. It has an orbital speed of 9,69 km/s making it take 29,5 years to complete an orbit around the sun

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