Saturn


Image Source: http://www.nineplanets.org/saturn.html

Saturn is the second largest planet and it is the sixth from the sun. Saturn orbits the sun at a distance of 888 million miles (9.54 AU). Saturn has a diameter of 75,000 miles and a mass of 5.68e26kg. The name Saturn comes from Roman mythology where Saturn is the god of agriculture. Saturn has been known for thousands of years. One of Saturn's distinct features is its large broad rings. These rings confused Galileo because his early telescope was not precise enough to tell what they were. Saturn has been visited by Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. The space probe Cassini will arrive there in 2004. Saturn has 18 known and named moons. 
           Distance  Radius    Mass
Satellite  (000 km)   (km)     (kg)   Discoverer   Date
---------  --------  ------  -------  ----------  -----
Pan             134      10     ?     Showalter    1990
Atlas           138      14     ?     Terrile      1980
Prometheus      139      46  2.70e17  Collins      1980
Pandora         142      46  2.20e17  Collins      1980
Epimetheus      151      57  5.60e17  Walker       1980
Janus           151      89  2.01e18  Dollfus      1966
Mimas           186     196  3.80e19  Herschel     1789
Enceladus       238     260  8.40e19  Herschel     1789
Tethys          295     530  7.55e20  Cassini      1684
Telesto         295      15     ?     Reitsema     1980
Calypso         295      13     ?     Pascu        1980
Dione           377     560  1.05e21  Cassini      1684
Helene          377      16     ?     Laques       1980
Rhea            527     765  2.49e21  Cassini      1672
Titan          1222    2575  1.35e23  Huygens      1655
Hyperion       1481     143  1.77e19  Bond         1848
Iapetus        3561     730  1.88e21  Cassini      1671
Phoebe        12952     110  4.00e18  Pickering    1898




The Solar System : Saturn

created by Titan Miller,
Burlington Community High School Math Department, Burlington Community High School

last modified: May 15, 2003

URL: www.titanmiller.net/pages/saturn.html