Planet Saturn has always fascinated mankind with its magical appearance. Saturn is the most spectacular planet of our solar system. When you look through your portable telescope you can see the beauty of this amazing planet. Saturn got its name as the father of Jupiter who is a god in Greek mythology. The Saturn and Jupiter have similar rotation and composition. Both planets are identical. There are very interesting facts about this 6th planet from the sun and second-largest among all.

1. The winds in Saturn are the fastest across the planets in the solar system:

The winds on the Saturn are measured to be at 1,100 miles per hour (1,800 km per hour). The fastest wind speed recorded on earth is 231 miles per hour (372 km per hour). You can compare the speed on earth and the seed on Saturn and imagine the speed of winds that are there on Saturn. You don’t want to be in the direction of such winds. No other planet of the solar system has ever recorded these speed figures in wind speed.

2. There are 150 moons and Moonlets of Saturn:

There are about 150 moons and Moonlets of Saturn isn’t that amazing. Nearly 62 are big moons while rest are smaller moonlets. All these moons of Saturn are frozen, Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and is the second-largest moon in the solar system only behind Ganymede the moon of Jupiter. The moon Enceladus is believed to have an ocean below its surface.

3. It is the flattest planet of the solar system:

The planet Saturn is flattest of the eight planets. The polar diameter of Saturn is 90% of its equilateral diameter. This makes it super flat. Low density and fat rotation speed cause this. The planet Saturn takes only 10 hours and 34 min to turn around its own axis.

4. The human naked eye can see Saturn

We can see planet Saturn with naked eyes. There are five other planets which we can see with naked eyes. If you just go outside and look above you can see Saturn. But you cannot see the ring around it and for that, you need a good portable telescope. Through a decent planetary telescope, you can see the Saturn in all its glory with a ring around it. The ring is what gave its name as the ringed planet of the solar system.

5. It takes Saturn 29.4 earth years to orbit the sun:

The Saturn is so slow in its movement around the sun that it takes nearly 30 years to complete one orbit around the sun. It was nicknamed “Lubadsagush” because of its slow-motion by the Assyrians which means the oldest of the old.

6. Saturn has the most spectacular rings in the entire solar system:

There are extensive and exclusive rings that make Saturn such a delightful sight even through a kid’s portable telescope. The carbonaceous dust and chunks of ice make the ring. The stretch of the ring can be more than 120700 km from the planet. The most amazing thing about this ring is its thickness which against the reach of 120700 km is only 20 meters in thickness.

7. It gives out more energy than it receives from the sun:

Every planet of the solar system takes energy from the sun and absorbs. Saturn is unique and different in this aspect. It gives more energy than it receives from the sun. gravitational compression of Saturn and friction of helium give rise to this phenomenon. Which is present in the atmosphere Saturn in abundance.

8. Four spacecraft have visited Saturn till date:

Although in total there are four spacecraft that have visited Saturn, no one has been able to land on the planet. There are Voyager 1(1980) and Voyager 2 (1981), Pioneer 11 (1979) and Cassini- Huygen’s mission. Of these, all spacecraft Cassini which entered Saturn’s orbit on 1st July 2004 is still sending information about Saturn, its moons, its rings and many more.

9. There could be life on Saturn’s moon Enceladus:

There are about 62 moons present for Saturn. The moons are all brazen and frozen. They do not sustain any life form. Titan the largest moon was initially believed to sustain life. It is made of liquid methane and frozen nitrogen. Life on Titan is not a possibility now. The moon Enceladus is believed to sustain life. It could have water below its surface. NASA’s spacecraft Cassini has seen geysers of ice bursting on the southern pole of Enceladus. Which shows the possibility of life in it.

10. In the entire solar system Saturn is the least dense planet:

Saturn is the least dense planet in the entire solar system. If you had a pool large enough to contain planet Saturn it would float in it. The density of Saturn is 0.687 gms/ cubic centimeter. The density of water is 1 gms/ cm³ and the density of the earth is 5.52 gms/cm³.