Saturn

The crown jewel

Vital statistics

• Mean radius: 58,232 kilometres
• Mass: 5.68 × 10²⁶ kilograms
• Surface gravity: 10.44 metres per second squared
• Sidereal rotation: 10.7 hrs
• Orbital period: 29.5 yrs
• Mean temperature: -140 °C
• Known moons: 274
• Axial tilt: 26.73 degrees

Field notes

• Saturn's average density is less than water. In an impossibly large bathtub, it would float.
• The rings span 280,000 km but are mostly just ~10 metres thick. To scale, that's far thinner than a sheet of paper.
• The rings are temporary. 'Ring rain' is pulling them into Saturn, and they may be younger than the dinosaurs — we're lucky to exist while they do.
• Its north pole has a hexagonal jet stream wider than two Earths. Eighty years after its discovery, the hexagon still isn't fully explained.

Data: NASA Planetary Fact Sheets. Explore the full interactive 3D map at the home page — every orbit is computed from real Keplerian elements.