Saturn is the sixth planet from the SUN and second largest planet in the Solar System. Its circumference is 74,898 miles around its equator which is nine times wider than the Earth. Saturn orbits the Sun once every 29.5 Earth’s years, at a distance of about 888 million miles.

The planet is made up of mostly hydrogen and helium, which are very light gases. This makes Saturn very light in weight. Astronomers believe that Saturn may be similar to Jupiter on the inside, because it also generates its own fierce heat. Saturn’s rings are made of dust and rocks. It is also called the Ringed Planet because of its surrounded rings. These rings were identified in the Seventeenth century by Galileo. Space probes such as Pioneer 11 in 1979 and the voyagers have since sent lots of information about the rings. Scientists now know that there are other planets with rings.

Planet Saturn

Saturn’s rings are just under one mile in thickness and are made up of dust, rocks and icy boulders. The rings that can be seen from the earth are actually made up of thousands of smaller ringlets. The outer ring particles are kept in place by the gravity of two small moons, known as the shepherd Moons. Saturn has 18 moons of which have been thought by scientists that both SAturn’s and Jupiter’s moons lies on similar positions in the Solar System where evidence of simple life are mostly to be found.