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Saturn: The Surface
Saturn, as a great gas giant, has no conventional surface. It is a fluid object—the light elements that compose it do not condense in the frigidity of space. Rather than an explicit separation between the planet’s surface and the surrounding atmosphere, Saturn’s surface is its atmosphere; Astronomers consider Saturn to begin where the atmospheric pressure exceeds one bar. When viewed from Earth, Saturn appears oblate, or with flattened poles. Due to its rapid rotation and fluid state, the equatorial and polar diameters differ by 10 percent (120,536 km and 108,728 km, respectively). Saturn is the most oblate of all the Jovian planets, which are themselves more oblate than their terrestrial counterparts.