---
title: "Saturn: facts, distance and size – Krillion Space"
description: "Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest, a hydrogen and helium giant best known for its broad, bright rings. With sourced facts."
url: https://krilion.app/atlas/saturn
language: en-US
---

# Saturn

Ringed giant. Depth 7 on the Krillion Space voyage, in the Outer Sol.

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest, a hydrogen and helium giant best known for its broad, bright rings. It has more confirmed moons than any other planet and is the farthest planet you can see without a telescope.

![Saturn at depth 7 in Krillion Space, mapped with rings from Cassini measurements.](https://krilion.app/assets/atlas/saturn.webp)

## Fact sheet

- **Type:** Gas giant
- **Distance:** About 1.4 billion km (886 million miles), or 9.5 AU, from the Sun on average
- **Size:** Diameter about 120,500 km (74,900 miles) at the equator, about 9 times Earth's
- **Discovered:** Known since antiquity
- **On the voyage:** Depth 7, in the Outer Sol section of the route, between Europa and Enceladus

## Things to know

- Saturn's average density is lower than that of water, so in principle it would float in a big enough bathtub. ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/saturn/facts/))
- The rings reach up to 282,000 km (175,000 miles) from the planet, yet the main rings are typically only about 10 m (30 feet) thick. ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/saturn/facts/))
- Saturn has 274 confirmed moons as of March 2025, more than any other planet. ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/saturn/facts/))
- A six-sided jet stream about 30,000 km (20,000 miles) across circles Saturn's north pole. ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/saturn/facts/))
- A day on Saturn lasts about 10.7 hours, while one orbit of the Sun takes about 29.4 Earth years. ([NASA](https://science.nasa.gov/saturn/facts/))

## Missions

Pioneer 11 reached Saturn first in 1979, followed by Voyager 1 (1980) and Voyager 2 (1981); Cassini orbited from 2004 to 2017, and its Huygens probe landed on the moon Titan in 2005.

## Sources

- [NASA – Saturn: Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/saturn/facts/)
- [NASA NSSDC – Saturn Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/saturnfact.html)
- [NASA – Saturn Exploration](https://science.nasa.gov/saturn/exploration/)

## On the route

- Previous landmark: [Europa](https://krilion.app/atlas/europa)
- Next landmark: [Enceladus](https://krilion.app/atlas/enceladus)
- [The whole Star Atlas](https://krilion.app/atlas)
- [Fly the voyage yourself](https://krilion.app/d/): every right answer warps your ship one stop deeper.