The second largest planet in the Solar System is Saturn, a gas giant famed for its stunning ring system. Saturn has a mean diameter of about 120,536 kilometers (74,898 miles), making it significantly larger than Earth but smaller than Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System, which has a mean diameter of about 139,822 kilometers (86,881 miles).
Saturn is primarily composed of hydrogen (about 96%) and helium (about 3%), along with traces of other gases, including methane and ammonia. Its atmosphere is known for its dynamic weather patterns and persistent storms. One of the most notable features of Saturn is its iconic rings, which are composed of ice particles, rocky debris, and dust. The rings extend outward from the planet and can reach up to 175,000 miles wide, although they are incredibly thin, sometimes only a few hundred meters thick.
Discovered by telescopes in the early 1600s, Saturn has long captivated astronomers. The planet has at least 82 moons, with Titan being the largest. Titan is unique because it has a substantial atmosphere and is believed to have lakes and rivers of liquid methane and ethane on its surface. This makes Titan one of the most intriguing places in the Solar System when it comes to the search for extraterrestrial life.
Saturn orbits the Sun at an average distance of about 1.4 billion kilometers (864 million miles) and takes approximately 29.5 Earth years to complete one orbit. Its rotation period is also noteworthy; a day on Saturn lasts about 10.7 hours, making it one of the fastest-rotating planets in our Solar System.
Due to its massive size and the composition of its atmosphere, Saturn has a strong magnetic field and therefore is surrounded by a magnetosphere. This characteristic provides Saturn with auroras at its poles, similar to those seen on Earth. The exploration of Saturn has mainly been achieved via NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which provided a wealth of information about the planet, its rings, and its moons from 2004 to 2017.