Saturn
In the planet series n this blog, here is Saturn. Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system. Saturn is about 75 thousand miles (120,000 km) in diameter and is about ten times the diameter of Earth. Around 764 Earths could fit inside Saturn.
Saturn’s rings most likely formed when comets, asteroids or even moons broke up in orbit around Saturn due to Saturn’s very strong gravity. The pieces of these objects kept colliding with each other and broke into even smaller pieces. These pieces gradually spread around Saturn to form its rings. The rings are about 175,000 miles (282,000 km) across, but only 3,200 feet (~1 km) thick. There are four main groups of rings and three fainter, narrower groups. These groups are separated divisions. Close up views of Saturn’s rings by the Voyager spacecrafts, which flew by them in 1980 and 1981, showed that these seven ring groups are made up of thousands of smaller rings.
The exact number is not known.
Saturn is not solid like Earth, but is a giant gas planet. It is made up of 94% hydrogen, 6% helium and small amounts of methane and ammonia. Hydrogen and helium are what most stars are made of.
Saturn has 31 known moons. The largest ones are shown above. Saturn’s largest moon Titan is bigger than Mercury and Pluto. Titan has a very thick atmosphere which is mostly nitrogen. Saturn also has many icy moons like Mimas which has a large crater that is 1/4 the diameter of the moon, and Enceladus which has very dark material covering one side and very bright material on the other side. Some of Saturn’s smaller moons help keep Saturn’s rings stable by orbiting in or near the rings. Some of the gaps in Saturn’s rings are caused by these moons.
