6th planet from the Sun
Saturn
No planet enchants like Saturn: its icy rings, 282,000 km wide yet on average only about ten metres thick, make it the jewel of the Solar System. Around it orbits the largest known retinue of moons: 293, including extraordinary worlds like Titan and Enceladus.
- Diameter
- 120,536 km
- Distance from Sun
- 1,432 M km
- Orbital period
- 29.46 years
- Day length
- 10h 33m
- Moons
- 293
- Average temp.
- -139 °C
The rings
Saturn's rings are 99% pure water ice: billions of fragments, from dust grains to house-sized blocks, orbiting in a sheet 282,000 km wide yet astonishingly thin — about ten metres on average. Seen edge-on from Earth, they all but vanish.
Their origin is still debated: they may be the remains of an icy moon torn apart by Saturn's tides. Cassini data suggest they are young — perhaps only 100-400 million years old — and that they are slowly raining onto the planet: within a few hundred million years they may be gone.
A featherweight giant
Saturn is the second-largest planet but is made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium: its average density, 0.69 g/cm³, is lower than water's. It is the only planet that would float, given a large enough ocean. Its rapid spin also makes it the most flattened planet: its equatorial diameter exceeds the polar one by 10%.
At Saturn's north pole spins one of the Solar System's most bizarre structures: a perfectly hexagonal jet stream about 30,000 km across, discovered by the Voyager probes and studied in detail by Cassini. Its geometric stability, maintained for decades, still lacks a full explanation.
Titan, Enceladus and the rest
With 293 confirmed moons as of 2026, Saturn is the Solar System's "king of moons". The largest, Titan, is the only moon with a dense atmosphere: beneath its orange haze the Huygens probe revealed rivers and lakes of liquid methane, a landscape at once alien and familiar.
Tiny Enceladus, just 500 km across, is among the most promising places to look for life: geysers at its south pole erupt water from a subsurface ocean, rich in salts and organic molecules. Cassini flew straight through them, directly "tasting" an alien ocean.
The 293 moons of Saturn
Saturn has 293 confirmed natural satellites (IAU / Minor Planet Center figures as of June 2026). Of those, 63 have received an official name; the other 230 so far carry only a provisional designation, such as S/2019 S 1.
Inner satellites 11
- Pan
- Daphnis
- Atlas
- Prometheus
- Pandora
- Epimetheus
- Janus
- Aegaeon
- Methone
- Anthe
- Pallene
Major moons 8
- Mimas
- Enceladus
- Tethys
- Dione
- Rhea
- Titan
- Hyperion
- Iapetus
Trojan moons 4
- Telesto
- Calypso
- Helene
- Polydeuces
Inuit group 5
- Kiviuq
- Ijiraq
- Paaliaq
- Siarnaq
- Tarqeq
Gallic group 4
- Albiorix
- Bebhionn
- Erriapus
- Tarvos
Norse group 31
- Phoebe
- Skathi
- Skoll
- Greip
- Hyrrokkin
- Jarnsaxa
- Mundilfari
- Bergelmir
- Gridr
- Narvi
- Suttungr
- Hati
- Eggther
- Farbauti
- Thrymr
- Angrboda
- Beli
- Aegir
- Gerd
- Bestla
- Skrymir
- Gunnlod
- Fenrir
- Alvaldi
- Surtur
- Kari
- Ymir
- Loge
- Geirrod
- Thiazzi
- Fornjot
Frequently asked questions
What are Saturn's rings made of?
99% water ice, with traces of rocky dust: billions of fragments ranging from sand grains to blocks several metres across, each on its own orbit. They are probably the remains of an icy moon shattered by the planet's tidal forces.
How many moons does Saturn have?
As of 2026 Saturn has 293 moons confirmed by the Minor Planet Center: the most of any planet in the Solar System, more than twice Jupiter's count. The vast majority are small irregular bodies a few kilometres across; the major moons are Titan, Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys and Enceladus.
Would Saturn really float on water?
In theory, yes: its average density of 0.69 g/cm³ is lower than water's (1 g/cm³), so it would float in a hypothetical giant ocean. It's a thought experiment, of course: no such ocean exists, and Saturn doesn't even have a solid surface to "rest" on.
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