Diameter: 74,900 miles (120,500 km).

Mass: 95.2 Earth masses

Rotation period: 0.43 days.

Inclination of equator to orbit: 26.7 degrees.

Mean orbital speed: 6 Miles per second (9.6 km/s)

Mean distance from the sun: 890 million miles (1.4 billion km)

THE STRUCTURE OF SATURN

Saturn is very similar to composition to neighbouring Jupiter, about 96% hydrogen and 3% helium. The gaseous make up gives the two planets low densities compared to the terrestrial planets. However Saturn is much less than Jupiter, that of 0.7 times that of water. With regards to its structure a rocky core is embedded within an outer core of water, methane and ammonia. Above this is a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen, , some 13,000 miles deep...over which lies a stratum of molecular hydrogen.

Again I comparison to Jupiter this planet actually radiates more energy than it receives from the sun. The continuous release of interior heat is more than likely to be responsible for generating convection currents in the atmosphere, which in turn gives rise to Saturn's high altitude clouds. The equatorial jet winds at the cloud tops move faster than they do on Jupiter, around 1,100 feet per second, which amounts to two thirds the speed of sound in the atmosphere there. This planet orbits much further from the sun than Jupiter does, and therefore it is colder and experiences less weather, and thus displaying fewer cloud features. However telescopes have identified large bands of cloud, epitomized by the recording of an enormous storm in 1990 by the Hubble Space Telescope.

                                                    THE RINGS

Saturn's rings remained unique within the known solar system until 1977, when very faint rings were discovered around Uranus.

Even now we are still not sure why this planet has these rings, yet their mere presence and existence astounds us all. I have long since looked towards answering such a question myself, yet I too am left with the theories forwarded by others to rely on. For me the best explanation is that the rings are in actual fact the remains of a moon that strayed too close to the planet and was pulled apart by Saturn's gravity. However there is the possibility that a moon was smashed to pieces by a passing comet/asteroid too. Another theory suggest that the rings are made of particles that were unable to concentrate into a moon, again because of the gravitational influence of the planet. However we can only theorize as to the origins of the rings, and hope that some day some clue will provide us with an answer.

Saturn's rings are immense, and very thin. The measure approximately 170,000 miles in diameter, with a width of 39,000 miles. However the big surprise is that they are less than a mile and a half thick. whilst many illustrations, and indeed the view from earth, would suggest that they are a solid disk, in fact they consist of many smaller ringlets, each containing myriad icy fragments and boulder size rocks. However despite their appearance there is also a lot of empty space..if the rings were all packed together to form a single body it would be no more than about 60 miles (100 km) across. Thus far there have been three main rings recognized, which have been simply labeled A, B and C, with the latter one being the fainter of the three (also called the crepe ring). A gap called the 'Cassini Division' separates A and B, although this is a little misleading as this 'gap region' contains four narrow ringlets each measuring about 300 miles across. In the 1970s and 80s Voyager and Pioneer 11 images revealed a further four additional faint rings. The innermost D ring consists of a few dusty and widely spaced bands. The outermost E and G rings are, in essence, slight concentrations of orbital debris and are very faint. Pioneer 11 detected the unusual F ring lying 2,200 miles outside the A ring. This ring appears smooth in places but also has a set of knotted and braided strands, shapes that arise partly from the gravitational effects of the 'shepherd' satellites Pandora and Prometheus.

SATURN'S MOONS

Saturn has 34 named satellites, yet more and more are being discovered all of the time (According to NASA in 2006 there were 47 natural satellites). There are complex tidal resonance's between some of Saturn's moons and the ring system. Some of the moons, the so called 'shepherding satellites,' (Atlas, Prometheus) are very important in keeping the rings in place by herding Saturn's orbiting particles into distinct rings. Mimas seems to be responsible for the paucity of material in the Cassini division whilst Pan is located inside the Encke division.