Saturn is the second largest planet in the Solar System and is a gas giant composed primarily from hydrogen, helium and methane, just like the other gas giants.

Saturn is one of the most fascinating bodies in the Solar System. All of the Gas Giants seem to have ring systems of some form or another but Saturn is the only one that is visible from amateur telescopes. The ring is thought to have been a satellite that broke up perhaps as long as 2.5 billion years ago and over that time has managed to spread into a complete circle around the planet. The ring is not exactly a ring but rather thousands of rings each almost completely circling Saturn. The debris that makes up the rings varies in size from flakes of dust to pieces about 30 metres wide. There are even larger bodies that live in the rings but are considered to be true Satellites.

The rings are broken up into categories called Ring A,Ring B etc. Ring F was first recognised by the Voyager flypast. Ring B is the brightest part of the ring system and is separated from Ring A (the outermost ring) by a 3000km gap. Although when Voyager analyzed this area it was seen that there are also faint rings in this area too.

Every 30 years or so a White spot appears in the Northern hemisphere, caused by the northern hemishpere being tilted to its maximum towards the Sun. The heat from the Sun makes the surface react by creating storms in the gaseous clouds. Theses storms can last for a few months until they start to dissipate.

Saturn has at least 18 moons, and the most famous of these is Titan. It has a diameter of 5150km and is larger than Mercury. Titan has the most substantial atmosphere of all the Satellites in the Solar System composed of methane and nitrogen. The atmospheric pressure is even greater than at sea level on Earth by 50%.