Saturn

Welcome to my saturn page. Saturn is the second largest planet. Only Jupiter is larger. Saturn has seven thin, flat rings around it. The rings consist of numerous narrow ringlets, which are made up of ice particles that travel around the planet. The gleaming rings make Saturn one of the most beautiful objects in the solar system. Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus are the only other planets known to have rings. Their rings are much fainter than those around Saturn. Saturn's diameter at its equator is about 74,900 miles (120,540 kilometers), almost 10 times that of Earth. The planet can be seen from Earth with the unaided eye, but its rings cannot. Saturn was the farthest planet from Earth that the ancient astronomers knew about. They named it for the Roman god of agriculture. Saturn travels around the sun in an elliptical (oval-shaped) orbit. Its distance from the sun varies from about 941,070,000 miles (1,514,500,000 kilometers) at its farthest point to about 840,440,000 miles (1,352,550,000 kilometers) at its closest point. The planet takes about 10,759 Earth days, or about 29 1/2 Earth years, to go around the sun, compared with 365 days, or one year, for Earth. Saturn dosen't have a lot of exploration. In 1997, the United States launched the Cassini probe to study Saturn, its rings, and its satellites. The probe began orbiting Saturn in 2004. Cassini also carried a probe called Huygens, which was to separate from Cassini and land on Titan. Huygens was built by the European Space Agency, an organization of European nations. Visit Uranus
 * [[image:http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/105665main_saturn1b.jpg width="250" height="125" caption="Saturn is encircled by seven major rings. In this photograph, a section of the rings is hidden by the planet's shadow."]] ||
 * Saturn is encircled by seven major rings. In this photograph, a section of the rings is hidden by the planet's shadow. The Cassini spacecraft, launched in 1997 to study Saturn and its rings and satellites, captured this natural color image as it approached the planet in 2004. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute ||