Saturn General Information





Saturn Statistics
Mean Distance from the Sun: 9.54 A.U. (1.42698 x 10^9 km)
Orbital Period: 29.5 years
Mean Orbital Velocity: 9.64 km/s
Equatorial surface gravity: 9.05 m/s^2
Period of Rotation: 10 h 40 m 30 s
Inclination of equator to orbit: 26.73 degrees



General Facts with a comparison to Earth
Saturn Earth Ratio(Saturn/Earth)
Mass (10^24 kg) 568.46 5.9736 95.162
Volume (10^10 kg^3) 82,713 108.321 763.59
Radius (1 bar level) (km)
Equatorial (km) 60,268 6,378 9.449
Polar (km) 54,364 6,356 8.553
Volumetric mean radius (km) 58,232 6,371 9.140
Ellipticity 0.0980 0.0034 28.2
Mean Density (kg/m^3) 687 5,520 0.124
Gravity (eq. 1 bar) (m/s^2)) 8.96 9.78 0.916
Escape Velocity (km/s) 35.5 11.19 3.172
Visual Magnitude V(1,0) -8.88 -3.36 -
Solar irradiance (W/m^2) 15.0 1,380 0.011
Black-body temperature (K) 63.9 247.3 0.258
Moment of Inertia (I/MR^2) 0.210 0.3308 0.635


Interesting factoid: Because Saturn (as well as Jupiter) is settling gravitationally, following its original accretion from the nebula, the contraction generates heat, causing Saturn to radiate into space three times as much heat as it recieves from the sun!

Return to Main Page