Saturn  
Saturn imaged by the Cassini orbiter
Designations
Pronunciation
Adjective Saturnian, Cronian
Orbital characteristics
Epoch J2000.0
Aphelion
  • 1,513,325,783 km
  • 10.115 958 04 AU
Perihelion
  • 1,353,572,956 km
  • 9.048 076 35 AU
Semi-major axis
  • 1,433,449,370 km
  • 9.582 017 20 AU
Eccentricity 0.055 723 219
Orbital period
  • 10,759.22 days
  • 29.4571 yr
  • 24,491.07 Saturn solar days
Synodic period 378.09 days
Average orbital speed 9.69 km/s
Mean anomaly 320.346 750°
Inclination
  • 2.485 240° to Ecliptic
  • 5.51° to Sun's equator
  • 0.93° to invariable plane
Longitude of ascending node 113.642 811°
Argument of perihelion 336.013 862°
Satellites ~ 200 observed (61 with secure orbits)
Physical characteristics
Equatorial radius
  • 60,268 ± 4 km
  • 9.4492 Earths
Polar radius
  • 54,364 ± 10 km
  • 8.5521 Earths
Flattening 0.097 96 ± 0.000 18
Surface area
  • 4.27×10
  • 83.703 Earths
Volume
  • 8.2713×10
  • 763.59 Earths
Mass
  • 5.6846×10
  • 95.152 Earths
Mean density 0.687 g/cm
(less than water)
Equatorial surface gravity
  • 10.44 m/s²
  • 1.065 g
Escape velocity 35.5 km/s
Sidereal rotation
period
10.57 hours
(10 hr 34 min)
Equatorial rotation velocity
  • 9.87 km/s
  • 35,500 km/h
Axial tilt 26.73°
North pole right ascension
  • 2h 42m 21s
  • 40.589°
North pole declination 83.537°
Albedo
  • 0.342 (Bond)
  • 0.47 (geometric)
Surface temp.
   1 bar level
   0.1 bar
min mean max
134 K
84 K
Apparent magnitude +1.47 to −0.24
Angular diameter 14.5"–20.1"
(excludes rings)
Atmosphere
Scale height 59.5 km
Composition
~96% hydrogen (H2)
~3% helium
~0.4% methane
~0.01% ammonia
~0.01% hydrogen deuteride (HD)
0.000 7% ethane
Ices:
ammonia
water
ammonium hydrosulfide(NH4SH)

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Saturn, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0