Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun, a hydrogen-and-helium gas giant distinguished by its bright ring system and numerous moons.
Saturn's rings: A broad system of icy and rocky particles orbiting Saturn in thin, structured bands. The rings are Saturn’s most visible distinction, shaped by gravity and collisions.
Cassini–Huygens: A NASA–ESA mission that explored Saturn and its moons from 2004 to 2017, including a lander sent to Titan. Its long orbital survey supplied much of what is known about Saturn today.
Titan: Saturn’s largest moon, with a dense nitrogen atmosphere and lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbons. Titan is a world with weather, rivers, and seas unlike those on Earth.
Nebular hypothesis: The model that the Sun and planets formed from a rotating cloud of gas and dust. It provides the broad framework for explaining Saturn’s formation around the young Sun.
Planetary rings: Flattened systems of particles orbiting planets, organized by gravity, collisions, and resonances. Saturn’s bright rings are the best-known example of this planetary structure.
Saturn's atmosphere: A deep hydrogen-and-helium atmosphere marked by cloud bands, powerful winds, and storms. Its clouds and weather give the planet its changing appearance.
Pioneer 11: A NASA spacecraft that made the first close flyby of Saturn in 1979. It provided the first in-situ measurements and close images of Saturn.
Enceladus: An icy moon of Saturn that ejects water-rich plumes from fractures near its south pole. Its plume exposes material from a subsurface ocean to spacecraft study.
Nice model: A model of early Solar System evolution in which giant planets migrated and rearranged their orbits. Planetary migration may have influenced Saturn’s orbit and the outer Solar System.
Orbital resonance: A gravitational relationship in which orbiting bodies exert repeated, regular perturbations on one another. Resonances with moons create gaps, waves, and other structures in Saturn’s rings.