The Sixth Planet From the Sun


Saturn, or the “ringed planet” as space scientists have nicknamed it, is the sixth planet from the Sun in the solar system. It is also the second largest planet out of the eight planets.

From Earth, it seems that Saturn has three rings. These rings were first discovered 300 years ago by a scientist named Christiaan Huygens. However, it was not until 1981 that the Voyager space probe discovered the rings were made of thousands of narrow ringlets formed of ice particles, rocks and dust.

Similar to other planets, Saturn is made of helium and hydrogen. Saturn is unique, though because its clouds are the color of butterscotch.

Some people might not know that Saturn was named after the Roman god of agriculture. Another surprising fact about this planet is that the distance from our planet to Saturn is 1.2 billion kilometers.

It would take three years and two months to get there!

[Sources: Stars and Planets ; Wikipedia; Simpson Street Free Press Archives ]

Excellent work. Very interesting article. – James Kramer , Middleton, WI (2015-07-13 20:42)
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