planet
Saturn
Less dense than water. The rings stretch 280,000 km across but average only about ten metres thick, are almost pure water ice, and may well be younger than the last dinosaurs.
Position
Computed on . For a continuously updating figure, open the live simulation.
When to look
Saturn is best placed at opposition, when Earth passes between it and the Sun. It then rises at sunset, stands highest at midnight, and is at its closest and brightest.
| Date (UTC) | Event | Distance from Earth |
|---|---|---|
| opposition | 8.43 AU | |
| opposition | 8.33 AU | |
| opposition | 8.23 AU | |
| opposition | 8.14 AU |
About Saturn
Saturn’s mean density is below that of water. The rings span 280,000 km but average around ten metres in thickness — a sheet of ice with the proportions of a sheet of paper the size of a city. Because the ring plane is tilted 26.7° to the orbit, their apparent opening cycles over Saturn’s 29.4-year year, and twice per orbit they turn edge-on and effectively vanish from small telescopes.
Physical data
- Diameter
- 120,536 km
- Mass
- 95.2 earths
- Surface gravity
- 10.4 m/s2
- Rotation
- 10h 42m
- Year
- 29.4 y
- Axial tilt
- 26.7 deg
- Cloud tops
- -139 C
- Moons
- 274 known
Positions from VSOP87, accurate to within one arcminute. Physical constants are published values and are not computed here.