awarehorizon // atlas_record
Saturn
Rings that are not solid, but countless orbiting fragments.
- classification
- Gas giant
- system
- Outer solar system
Saturn is the second-largest planet in the solar system, encircled by a broad, extremely thin ring system and orbited by a diverse family of moons.
- Mean radius
- 58,232 km
- Surface gravity
- 10.44 m/s² at the 1-bar level
- Orbital period
- 29.4 Earth years
- Orbital distance
- 1.43 billion km from the Sun (mean)
- Cloud-top temperature
- about −178 °C at the 1-bar level
Only values with an established scientific consensus are listed. Where a quantity is uncertain or model-dependent, it is discussed in the sections below rather than stated as data.
The rings are made of countless separate bodies
They are dominated by water ice, ranging from dust grains to house-sized blocks, each on its own orbit.
The rings are thin
Tens of metres thick in places, across a span of hundreds of thousands of kilometres.
Enceladus vents material into space
Plumes of water vapour and ice grains from Saturn's moon Enceladus feed the outer E ring.
Long-duration orbital mission
Cassini observed the system for thirteen years, including passes between the planet and its rings.
Stellar and radio occultations
Watching starlight and radio signals dim as they pass through the rings reveals particle sizes and ring structure.
In-situ plume sampling
Cassini flew through the Enceladus plume and measured its composition directly.
- How old are the rings?Estimates from a few hundred million years to primordial remain debated.
- What is the planet's true internal rotation rate?
- Is Enceladus's subsurface ocean chemically hospitable?Suggestive, but unresolved.
Items above are unresolved. Hypotheses are labelled as such and are not presented as confirmed findings.