Saturn (Courtesy to Microsoft Encarta for this photograph.)

Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun, has always been full of mysteries and its greatest mystery are its rings. Its rings stretch out all the way to 136,200 km. (84,650 mi.) away from the tops of Saturn's atmosphere and some regions are only five meters thick. The rings are made up of chunks of rock and ice ranging in size from a grain of sand to the size of a house. The rings also form a partitioned system. The partitions have been named in the order that they were discovered. Using a good telescope, you can see three of these rings. The two outermost of these three rings are divided by a division called the Cassini Division. This division was named after Giovanni Cassini who discovered it in 1675. The Cassini Division has material in it but not as much material as the three large rings do.

There are many similarities between Jupiter and Saturn. For example, they both are gas giants, have more than fifteen moons, have rings, and they both have a magnetic field. Saturn's magnetic field is much weaker and smaller than Jupiter's field. Saturn's magnetic field is made up of hoop-shaped radiation belts that are filled with electrons and atomic nucleui. These are particles that are the remnants of the radiation spewed from the Sun.

Saturn has many different moons orbiting around it. There are nine moons that can be seen with strong telescopes. All twenty of the discovered moons have diameters that range from 12 miles to 3200 miles. Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, and Rhea are the inner moons of Saturn and they are mostly comprised of water ice. Mimas has a large crater that surprised scientists because it did not shatter the moon. The crater is 80 miles wide and Mimas is only 240 miles in diameter. Titan is the largest moon within the orbit of Saturn. It is larger than even Mercury, and it is the only moon in the Solar System that has an atmosphere. Titan's atmosphere is made up of 85% nitrogen and the rest is made of methane. Methane is the natural gas that we use on Earth. Space probes have detected that the surface temperature of Titan is 300 degrees below zero.