Saturn

Saturn is a planet in the solar system and is the 6th closest planet to the sun. The distance from the sun to Saturn is over 885 million miles. Saturn is one of the four planets in the solar system that is a gas planet.

These gas planets are called ‘Jovian Planets’ Saturn is made up of layers and layers of gas, and has many rings and moons that orbit around the planet. Saturn is very well known for its rings that are visible from Earth through a telescope.

Saturn is the 2nd largest planet in the solar system, with Jupiter the only planet that is larger.

It’s not known exactly when Saturn was discovered and by whom as Saturn has been known for a very long time, and is one of the planets that can be seen from Earth without a telescope. 

The temperature on Saturn is around -288 degrees on average. It takes Saturn 29 Earth years to orbit the sun, which is a very long time, however as Saturn orbits very slow around the sun compared to Earth, it rotates very fast. 1 day on Saturn lasts for about 10 hours & 15 minutes, compared to Earths 24 hours.

Kids Fun Facts Corner

# 1. Saturn’s moon Titan is bigger than the planet Mercury.

# 2. Saturn is the least dense planet in the solar system.

# 3. Saturn has 62 moons in total.

# 4. Saturn has 7 layers of rings.

# 5. The Earth would fit into Saturn more than 760 times.

Q&A Corner

Q. How long is 1 day on Saturn?

Q. How many years does it take Saturn to orbit the sun?

Q. What is Saturn best known for?

Q. What are Saturn’s rings made up of?

Download questions about Saturn here: Saturn (answers are on this page)

Teachers. For more in depth work sheets on Saturn. Click on Kidskonnect. Worksheets

For further reading and more information on Saturn visit http://www.planetsforkids.org