Saturn: Planet 6


	Diameter		74,897 miles (120,536 km)
	Average Distance from Sun		890,800,000 miles (1,433,500,000 km)
	Planet Composition		liquid hydrogen and helium surrounding a small rocky core
	Atmosphere		hydrogen, helium
	Average Temperature		-220°F (-140°C)
	Number of Moons		18 named and 12 or more newly discovered and unnamed
	Orbital Period		10,747 (29.44 years)
	Period of Rotation		10 hours 40 minutes

Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system, and is nine times the diameter of Earth.

Because Saturn rotates so quickly, it bulges out around the equator and looks flattened at the poles.

Because Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen, it is lighter than water. It would float in a bathtub!

Ammonia and sulfur in the cloud tops color the planet white and yellow.

Saturn has a stormy atmosphere with winds up to a thousand miles per hour.

The beautiful rings (Saturn may have up to a thousand separate ringlets) are 170,000 miles across, but less than a mile thick. These rings are made of rock and chunks of ice as small as bits of dust and as large as house-sized boulders. They may have come from a moon that was pulverized during a collision or shattered by Saturn's massive gravity.


Mimas	Titan

Saturn's moon Mimas has a huge crater that reminds many people of the Death Star from the Star Wars movies.

Titan is the second largest moon in the solar system -- it is even larger than Mercury or Pluto!

Titan has a nitrogen atmosphere that is thicker than Earth's, with an orange smog that completely hides a rocky, icy surface.

Pools and lakes of liquid ethane are scattered across Titan's surface. Ethane is highly flammable substance that is usually a gas on Earth. On Titan, it is so cold that ethane is liquid like water -- but water on Titan is frozen solid.

Links

Activity Idea: teachspacescience.stsci.edu/graphics/pdf/10000265.pdf the Saturn Educator Guide has detailed background information and lessons about Saturn's rings and moons, the history of Saturn's discovery, the Cassini-Huygens mission, and art, language, and mythological enrichment activities. This guide is available free for download in PDF format.