Valours

The second biggest planet in our solar system and the sixth planet from the Sun. Saturn has an intricate ring system that has fascinated Earth-bound astronomers for centuries. The rings are made up of ice and rock particles--some as big as houses--that were probably pieces of comets or asteroids that broke up before they reached the planet. Saturn has been visited in flybys in the 1970s by NASA's Pioneer 10 and 11 and in 1980-81 by the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft. The Cassini spacecraft, launched in 1997, will arrive at Saturn in 2004.