Planet Mug SATURN

SATURN. (Shown in true colour) With its resplendent ring system, Saturn is arguably the most stunning planet in our solar system. Located sixth in line from the sun, it is the second-largest world orbiting the sun, after Jupiter. Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen and helium. Its volume is 755 times greater than that of Earth. Winds in the upper atmosphere reach 1,600 feet (500 metres) per second in the equatorial region. (In contrast, the strongest hurricane-force winds on Earth top out at about 360 feet, or 110 metres, per second.) These superfast winds, combined with heat rising from within the planet's interior, cause the yellow and gold bands visible in the atmosphere. Saturn's ring system is the most extensive and complex in the solar system, extending hundreds of thousands of kilometres from the planet. Saturn orbits at an average distance of 886 million miles (1.4 billion kilometres) from the sun, the central star in our solar system, meaning that one Saturnian year lasts roughly 29.4 Earth years, according to NASA(opens in new tab). It usually takes sunlight 80 minutes to travel between the sun and Saturn. The planet has the second-shortest day in the solar system, at only 10.7 hours, just slightly longer than Jupiter’s 9.93-hour day. Saturn has an axial tilt very close to our own, about 26.73 degrees with respect to its orbit around the sun (Earth's is 23.5 degrees), meaning that Saturn experiences seasons similar to our own. The Hubble Space Telescope has provided images of Saturn in many colours, from black-and-white, to orange, to blue, green and red. But in this picture, image processing specialists have worked to provide a crisp, accurate view that highlights the planet's pastel colours. Bands of subtle colour - yellows, browns, greys - distinguish differences in the clouds. Saturn's high-altitude clouds are made of colourless ammonia ice. Above these clouds is a layer of haze or smog, produced when ultraviolet light from the Sun shines on methane gas. The smog contributes to the planet's subtle colour variations. One of Saturn's moons, Enceladus, is seen casting a shadow on the giant planet as it passes just above the ring system. The planet's ring system, consisting mostly of chunks of water ice, appears as if the disc is composed of only a few rings. It actually consists of tens of thousands of thin 'ringlets.' This picture also shows the two classic divisions in the ring system. The narrow Encke Gap is nearest to the disc's outer edge; the Cassini division is the wide gap near the centre. At the time of the 10-minute exposure by Hubble's WFPC2 Planetary Camera, Saturn was 1300 million km from Earth.