Saturn

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Saturn
Known to the ancients
Name origin	Roman god of harvest
Orbital characteristics
Celestial class	Planet
Primary	Sun
Order from primary	7
Perihelion	9.02 AU1.34937e+9 km 838,461,377.679 mi
Aphelion	10.05 AU1.50346e+9 km 934,205,858.723 mi
Semi-major axis	9.537 AU1.42671e+9 km 886,519,529.815 mi
Titius-Bode prediction	10.0 AU
Circumference	59.879 AU8.95777e+9 km 5.5661e+9 mi
Orbital eccentricity	0.054
Sidereal year	29.458 a10,759.535 da
Synodic year	378.10 da1.035 a
Avg. orbital speed	10.183 km/s36,658.8 km/h 6.327 mi/s 22,778.722 mph
Inclination	2.484°0.0434 rad 2.76 grad to the ecliptic
Rotational characteristics
Sidereal day	10.783 h0.449 da
Axial tilt	26.73°0.467 rad 29.7 grad
Physical characteristics
Mass	5.6846 * 1026 kg95.124 M⊕ 0.299 M♃
Mean density	687.3 kg/m³0.687 g/ml 42.907 lb/ft³
Equatorial radius	60,268 km37,448.799 mi
Surface gravity	9.05 m/s²29.692 ft/s² 0.923 g
Escape speed	35.49 km/s127,764 km/h 22.052 mi/s 79,388.869 mph
Surface area	42,700,000,000 km²1.64866e+10 mi² 83.714 A⊕ 0.687 A♃
Mean temperature	134 K-139.15 °C -218.47 °F 241.2 °R
Number of moons	60
Composition	75% hydrogen and 25% helium
Color	#FFE99A
Albedo	0.47

Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun and the second largest planet in the solar system. It is named after a Roman god of agriculture and harvest. Saturn is a gas giant with an atmosphere of mostly hydrogen and helium. It has a radius of 60,268 km (37,449 miles) and an average orbital distance of 1,426,725,400 km (885,904,700 miles) from the sun. One complete orbit takes 29.4 Earth years. Saturn’s distinctive characteristic is its many rings. Although all the gas giants have planetary rings, Saturn’s collection stretches from 6,630 km to 120,700 km above the equator. In total, there are at least twelve rings which compose the formation. Saturn additionally has at least fifty-six natural satellites. One of these is the moon Titan, which has a dense atmosphere not found with any other moon.

Rings

Saturn's rings are of interest to creation scientists. There are many hundreds of rings that, together, are wider than more than 20 Earths, about 255,000 km (160,000 mi). Evolutionists admit that Saturn's rings could not be older than about 30 million years, so they propose that at some point millions of years ago, a moon of Saturn was shattered by a comet and formed into the rings. However, it has been calculated that such a ring-forming collision would not form in 30 billion years. It is much more plausible that the rings are only a few thousand years old, created along with the rest of the planets on the fourth day of creation.

Related References

• NASA "Saturn"
• Wikipedia "Saturn"
• "How old are Saturn's rings?" by David Harris. Creation 12(4):40–41. September 1990

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See Also

• Solar system
• Planet
• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Uranus
• Neptune
• Titan