# Wikijunior:Solar System/Saturn

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!♄.svg "♄"){width="80"} **Saturn Facts**:

-   If you could find a bathtub big enough, Saturn would float in it.
-   Some of Saturn\'s moons control the width of its rings. These are
    known as shepherd moons.
-   Although it is made mostly of gases, scientists believe Saturn has a
    small rocky core.

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**Saturn** is the sixth planet from the sun, and is one of the *gas
giants*.

{{  }}

## How big is the planet?

!Comparison of the size of Saturn and the
Earth
Saturn is 120,536 km or 9.449 Earths wide at the **equator**.[^1]

## What is its surface like?

Saturn is mostly gas and liquid.[^2] Saturn may have a small core of
rock and ice.[^3] The **atmosphere** has bands, but they are not as
colorful as Jupiter\'s.

## What are its rings like?

!Saturn casts a shadow on its
rings
Saturn\'s rings are composed of rock and ice particles ranging in size
from specks of dust to the size of a house. Some particles might even be
a few kilometers wide! The particles in the rings are actually spaced
far apart. It would be easy to pass through the rings.[^4]

## What are its moons like?

!Map of the Saturn system
(NASA)") Saturn has 56
moons, and many of them have names.[^5]The size of Saturn\'s moons and
the size of the chunks of ice in its rings are similar, which means that
we can never know the exact number of moons. [^6] New moons are still
being discovered. Saturn\'s biggest moon is named Titan, and is large
enough to be a planet in its own right!

### Shepherd moons

There are small potato-shaped moons in or near Saturn\'s rings. They
control the ring particles with their gravity. That is why they are
called shepherd moons. Six of them are known, and there may be more.[^7]

### Mimas

Mimas is mostly made of water ice with a small amount of rock.[^8] It
has a large **crater** for its size called *Herschel*. It is 130 km
across, making it about a third as big as Mimas.[^9] The crater makes
Mimas look like the Death Star from the *Star Wars* movies.

### Enceladus

Enceladus is made of ice. It is **denser** than the other icy moons.
That suggests it also has some rock inside.[^10] It has smooth areas,
cracks and some craters. The smooth areas are younger. Craters there
have been erased within the past 100 million years. Water vapor was
found over a smooth area around the south pole. The cracks and grooves
suggest **tectonics** similar to Ganymede\'s. Some ridges similar to
Europa\'s ridges were also found. Those suggest oceans like Europa\'s
under some areas of Enceladus.[^11]**Tidal forces** from Dione could be
powering some of this activity. It is because Enceladus orbits Saturn
twice for every orbit by Dione. This makes Dione and Saturn tug on
Enceladus. This is similar to how Europa and Ganymede\'s tidal forces on
Io power Io\'s volcanoes.[^12]

### Tethys

!Tethys imaged by the Cassini
spacecraft.
Tethys is an icy moon that has many craters, including the huge
*Odysseus*. It is 400 km across, 1/5th as big as Tethys is. The crater
had become flattened because the icy material does not hold its shape as
well as rock would. There is also a large valley called *Ithaca Chasma*.
It is 3 to 5 km deep, 100 km wide and 2000 km long, three fourths of the
way around Tethys.[^13]

There are two moons, Telesto and Calypso, which share Tethys\' orbit.
Telesto is ahead of Tethys and Calypso is behind it.[^14]

### Dione

Dione is made of lots of ice and there may be some rock in its **core**.
It has lots of craters. The craters are flattened because the ice does
not hold their shape as well as rock. One side has bright white lines
that are fractures. Two moons share Dione\'s orbit. Helene is ahead of
Dione and Polydeuces is behind it.[^15]

### Rhea

Rhea is an icy moon similar to Dione with some rock in the core. It has
many craters mostly on one side, and the other side has some bright
white icy areas.[^16]

### Titan

!Titan imaged by the Cassini
spacecraft.
Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the second largest one in the
solar system.[^17] It is the only moon in the Solar System that has a
thick atmosphere. The atmosphere is made of **nitrogen**, **argon**,
**methane** and various **organic compounds**.[^18] Its surface has
light and dark areas and few craters. The Cassini probe discovered a
huge crater 440 km wide.[^19]

### Hyperion

Hyperion is made of water ice with a little rock. It is potato shaped.
It wobbles instead of rotating in the same way other moons do.[^20]

### Iapetus

!Mosaic of Iapetus images taken by the Cassini
spacecraft.
Iapetus is almost entirely ice.[^21] It has a light area called
*Roncevaux Terra* that has craters.[^22] There is a big dark area called
*Cassini Regio* that covers half of Iapetus. The dark material may be
from Phoebe. Some of it is on the bottom of craters. Some huge craters
and a ridge have been discovered in *Cassini Regio* by the Cassini
probe. The ridge stretches 1300 km along the equator. It is up to 20 km
high, which is over 2.26 times higher than Mount Everest.[^23] More huge
craters were found in *Roncevaux Terra* when Cassini went by Iapetus
again.[^24]

### Phoebe

Phoebe is made of ice and rock. It looks dark because it has a layer of
dark material on the outside. It also looks rough.[^25]

### Other moons

There are two groups of small outer moons. Phoebe is part of the second
outermost group.[^26]

## How long is a day on this planet?

One day on Saturn is about 10 hours and 39 minutes in Earth time.[^27]

## How long is a year on this planet?

One year on Saturn is about 29.46 Earth years long. That is 10,760 Earth
days![^28]

## What is it made of?

Saturn has a rocky core. Around the core, there is ice. Above the ice is
liquid metallic **hydrogen**. On top of that is gaseous hydrogen. There
is no place where the hydrogen suddenly turns from a gas to a liquid.

The gaseous hydrogen makes up most of Saturn\'s atmosphere. Other gases
there include **helium** and some other gases. There may be rain made of
helium falling through the hydrogen. There is also ammonia on the
surface.[^29]

## How much would Saturn\'s gravity pull on me?

If you were floating close to the cloud tops of Saturn, it would pull
you down with a force only a little stronger than the force of Earth\'s
gravity.[^30] The effects of Saturn\'s large **radius** and its **mass**
almost cancel each other out, making the force only a little bigger. So,
if you weighed 100 lbs. on Earth, you would weigh 106 lbs. on Saturn.

## Who is it named after?

Saturn is named after the most important Roman god of agriculture and
harvest time. He taught people how to farm. He was the father of
Jupiter. Saturday is named after him.[^31]

Uranus

ar:ويكي الأطفال:نظام
شمسي/زحل bs:Wiki junior
Sunčev sistem/Saturn
de:Wikijunior_Sonnensystem/\_Saturn
es:Wikichicos/Sistema_Solar/Saturno
fr:Wikijunior:Système_solaire/Saturne
nl:Wikijunior:Zonnestelsel/Saturnus
pl:Wikijunior:Układ_Słoneczny/Saturn
fi:Wikijunior_Aurinkokunta/Saturnus

## References

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de:Wikijunior Sonnensystem/
Saturn
nl:Wikijunior:Zonnestelsel/Saturnus

[^1]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/saturn.html>;
    <http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/saturnfact.html>

[^2]: <http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Saturn&Display=OverviewLong>

[^3]: <http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=166>

[^4]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/saturn.html>;
    <http://www.solarviews.com/eng/saturnrings.htm>;
    <http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Saturn&Display=Rings>

[^5]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/saturn.html>

[^6]: <http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0860937.html>

[^7]: <http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/faq/saturn.cfm#q13>

[^8]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/mimas.html>

[^9]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/mimas.html>

[^10]: <http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/products/pdfs/20050830_CHARM_Esposito.pdf>;
    <http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/faculty/jewitt/kb/phoebe.html>

[^11]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/enceladus.html>;
    <http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/jul/HQ_05208_cassini_watery_world.html>;

[^12]: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/saturn/enceladus.shtml>;
    <http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-01e3.html>

[^13]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/tethys.html>

[^14]: <http://apod.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020519.html>

[^15]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/dione.html>;
    <http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Dione>;
    <http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Sat_Polydeuces>

[^16]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/rhea.html>;
    <http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Sat_Rhea>

[^17]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/titan.html>;
    <http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Sat_Titan>

[^18]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/titan.html>;
    <http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Sat_Titan>

[^19]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/titan.html>;
    <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini-021605.html>

[^20]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/hyperion.html>

[^21]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/iapetus.html>

[^22]: <http://www.seasky.org/solarsystem/sky3g8.html>

[^23]: <http://www.solarviews.com/cap/pia/PIA06166.htm>;
    <http://www.solarviews.com/eng/iapetus.htm>;
    <http://www.nineplanets.org/iapetus.html>;
    <http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030831.html>

[^24]: <http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2763>

[^25]: <http://www.solarviews.com/eng/phoebe.htm>

[^26]: <http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0860937.html>

[^27]: <http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Saturn&Display=Facts&System=Metric>

[^28]: <http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/saturnfact.html>

[^29]: <http://www.nineplanets.org/saturn.html>;
    <http://www.solarviews.com/eng/saturn.htm>;
    <http://www.seasky.org/solarsystem/sky3g1.html>

[^30]: <http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/saturnfact.html>

[^31]: <http://www.pantheon.org/articles/s/saturn.html>;
    <http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_kids/AskKids/saturn_name.shtml>
