Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and second largest. It is 1 429 400
000 km from the Sun.
Saturn has been known from very early ages, as it can be seen in the night
sky with the naked eye.
The first person to view the planet with a telescope was Galileo in 1610.
The first spacecraft to visit Saturn was Pioneer 11 in 1979, and later by
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.
The Cassini spacecraft is now on its way, and will arrive in 2004. As well
as making detailed observations of Saturn, it will hopefully send a probe
called Huygens built by the European Space Agency on to the surface of Titan,
one of Saturns moons.
Titan
Though Saturns rings look continuous from Earth, they are actually made up of millions of small particles each in an independant orbit.
They range in size from a centimeter or so, to several meters. A few kilometer sized objects are also present. The ring particles appear to be made from water ice, as well as rocky particles with an icy covering. The rings are extraordinarily thin, though they are 250 000 km in diameter they are no more than 1.5 km thick.
DATE
1990
1980
1980
1980
1980
1966
1789
1789
1684
1980
1980
1684
1980
1672
1655
1848
1671
1898
DISTANCE from SAT/km
134 000
138 000
139 000
142 000
151 000
151 000
186 000
238 000
295 000
295 000
295 000
377 000
377 000
527 000
1 222 000
1 481 000
3 561 000
12 952 000
DISCOVERER
SHOWALTER
TERRILE
COLLINS
COLLINS
WALKER
DOLLFUS
HERSCHEL
HERSCHEL
CASSINI
REITSEMA
PASCU
CASSINI
LAQUES
CASSINI
HUYGENS
BOND
CASSINI
PICKERING
MOON
PAN
ATLAS
PROMETHEUS
PANDORA
EPIMETHEUS
JANUS
MIMAS
ENCELADUS
TETHYS
TELESTO
CALYPSO
DIONE
HELENE
RHEA
TITAN
HYPERION
IAPETUS
PHOEBE
