Saturn, like Jupiter, is a member of the gas giant family in our solar system. Like the other gas giants, Saturn is encircled by a series of rings, but Saturn’s rings are by far the most complex and readily visible. This ring system, mostly made up of water ice and other elements and compounds, extends for hundreds of thousands of kilometers from the planet, kept in place by its power magnetic field, roughly 578 times as powerful as Earth’s.

 

Saturn takes about 29 and a half years to complete one orbit around the Sun, but the length of a day on Saturn corresponds with Jupiter’s, taking about 10 hours to finish one rotation. Also like Jupiter, Saturn is comprised of mostly helium and hydrogen, with super-fast winds blowing through the atmosphere that creates on-going storms. These storms, with the heat from the planet’s interior, create the gold and yellow bands that are visible.

 

Saturn has been a site of considerable study for spacecraft, in particularly the Cassini spacecraft. Reaching Saturn, and entering its orbit, in 2004, the mission was set to end in 2008, and then again in 2010, but has been extended to 2017. The spacecraft continues to send high-definition photos of the ringed planet and its moon.