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What Are Some Interesting Facts About Saturn?

Saturn, the second largest planet in our solar system, is the sixth planet from the sun. Saturn is most famous for its large rings made up of ice particles that surround the planet.

Name Origin
- Ancient astronomers named the planet Saturn, after the god of agriculture in Roman mythology.
Rotation
- Saturn takes approximately 29.5 Earth years to rotate around the sun. Rotating on its own axis, a complete rotation, or a typical Saturn day is 10 hours and 39 minutes.
Atmosphere
- Saturn is made up of a dense inner core of rocky material surrounded by a gaseous outer core, primarily made up of ammonia, methane and water. The temperature of Saturn's clouds averages -175 Celsius.
Satellites
- Saturn has 25 orbiting masses with a diameter greater than 6 kilometers. Titan, the largest of Saturn's satellites, or moons, has a nitrogen atmosphere, and is larger than Mercury and Pluto.
Missions
- In 1979, NASA Launched the Pioneer-Saturn probe which sent back data on the planet's magnetic field and pictures of its rings. In 1980, NASA followed with Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes which sent back information on Saturn's satellites. NASA launched the Cassini probe which has been in Saturn's orbit since 2004.

Astronomy