Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and was named after the Roman god of agriculture.
Facts about Saturn
It's a gas giant
Orbital period: 29 years
Distance from Sun: 1.434 billion km
Surface area: 42.7 billion km²
Radius: 58,232 km
Age: 4.503 billion years
Gravity: 10.44 m/s²
it has rings of ice
Clouds and seas of Methane
Half the size of Earth
Saturn - Credit Mark Cullen
Saturn, Credit, Brain Greenow
Saturns feature
Saturn has rings, the South Pole vortex (hurricane) and auroras. Check out this video.
The Unique Characteristics of Planet Saturn | Our Solar System's Planets. Credit, Astrum
Saturns Moons
Saturn has 50 Moons. These are the main ones; Titan (the largest), Enceladus, Mimas, Dione, Iapetus, Tethys, Hyperion
Credit Astrum, The Bizarre Characteristics of Titan | Our Solar System's Moons: Titan
Saturns Rings
Saturn has rings made out of ringlets of water ice. Check out this video.
Visits to Saturn
Five robotic spacecraft have visited Saturn. NASA's Pioneer 11 provided the first close look in September 1979. NASA's twin Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft followed up with flybys nine months apart in 1980 and 1981.
Voyager 2. Credit, Wikipedia
Cassini
On the 15th of October 1997, NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency sent a spacecraft to Saturn to explore the planet and its rings and moons. The craft took 7 years to reach Saturn and carried a probe, the European Huygens lander, that landed on Saturn in 2005. The Cassini craft crashed on purpose into Saturn's atmosphere on 15th September 2017.
Credit Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini%E2%80%93Huygens#/media/File:Cassini_Saturn_Orbit_Insertion.jpg
Credit, JPL, NASA at Saturn: Cassini's Grand Finale
Dragon Fly - visit to Saturn's Moon, Titan
In June 2027, NASA's new flying drone spacecraft (8 rotors), Dragon Fly, will search Saturn's largest Moon, Titan, for signs of past life using special chemical analysis machines. It will investigate the composition and properties of the moon’s atmosphere and surface methane ocean and liquid methane reservoirs. The journey will take 8 years.
Dragon Fly, Credit NASA, https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/1184/why-is-nasa-sending-dragonfly-to-titan-here-are-five-reasons/
Credit, NASA, New Dragonfly Mission Flying Landing Sequence Animation
Credit, REAL Engineering, NASA's Dragonfly Mission to Titan.
Cheers
Mark Brown