SYMBOL AND NAME
• Saturn is named for the
Roman god of Agriculture.
•
• In English Saturn means
Saturday
DISCOVERY
• Galileo observed Saturn in
1610
• In 1659 Christian Huygens
figured out the geometry of
the rings.
• Visited by NASA in 1979
MEASUREMENTS
Distance from the sun (9.54 AU)
Distance from earth (8.54 AU)
Mass: 5.6832 times 10 26 Kg
Volume: 8.2713 times 10 14 Km 3
Density: 0.687 g/cm3
ORBIT AND ROTATION
Orbit the sun: 10,759 days
Rotate on it’s axis: 10 hours 13 minutes
GRAVITY AND ATMOSPHERE
• Would Saturn float or sink in water?
Saturn would float, if there was enough water,
because it is made of mostly gas and it is less
dense then water.
• Saturn’s gravity is 91% of earth’s gravity
• Saturn has a thick atmosphere
• Made mainly of hydrogen and helium
COMPOSITION AND APPEARANCE
• Saturn is a gas giant which means that it does
not have a solid surface.
• Internal composition: rocks and ice
• Appearance: Large, grey/orange,
Large circling rings.
RINGS
• Made of chunks of rock and ice
• 7 thin rings (169,800 miles wide, 0.62
thin)
• Grey, blue, and greenish
• Each ring orbits at a different speed
• In 1659 Christiaan Huygens discovered
the rings
WATER
• There are small chunks of water and ice in the
atmosphere.
• In 2010 and 2011 a storm churned water and ice up
from within the thick atmosphere
MOONS
• 53 moons
• Titan is a well known moon
• The others are Atlas, Calypso, Dione, Enceladus,
Hyperion, Iapetus, Janus, Mimas, Phobe, Tethys
WEATHER
• Cool temperatures (minus 288 degrees
Fahrenheit)
• Every saturn year (equivalent to 30 Earth
years) an enormous storm is produced
• known as the great white spots
• First observation of these storms was in 1876
WHAT IF YOU TRAVELED TO SATURN?
• Saturn can not support life
• You would not be able to walk because Saturn
is made of gas.
• You would freeze because of the cold
temperatures
• You would suffocate because there is no
oxygen
COOL FACTS
• If Saturn was the size of a basketball, earth
would be a nickel
• Saturn spins so quickly on its axis that the
planet flattens itself out into an oblate
spheroid. (it looks flat)
• Saturn is the least dense planet in the Solar
System
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nola Taylor Redd. "Saturn's Temperature: One Cool Planet."
Space.com. Space.com, 14 Nov. 2012. Web. 25 Dec. 2013.
"Mystery of Saturns Great White Spot."
Http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2013/06/mystery-ofsaturns-great-white-spot-solved.html. N.p., 24 June 12. Web.
"Solar System Exploration: Planets: Saturn: Overview." Solar System
Exploration: Planets: Saturn: Overview. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Dec.
2013.
"Saturn:Overview." Olar System Exploration: Planets: Saturn:
Overview." Solar System Exploration: Planets: Saturn: Overview.
N.p., N.d. Web. 31 Dec. 2013. N.p., n.d. Web.
"Nine Planets." The Solar System Tour. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Dec. 2013.