Orbit and Rotation of Saturn

Saturn’s average distance from the Sun is 1,400,000,000 km. The average orbital speed of Saturn is 9.69 km/s. It takes the earth 365 days to orbit the sun, Saturn takes 10,759 Earth days (or about 29½ years), to revolve around the sun; a year on Saturn is equivalent to 29.5 Earth years.

Saturn has an elliptical orbit and is inclined at 2.48°. The reason for Saturn not having a constant distance is it has an eccentricity of 0.056. This causes the distance between Saturn and the Sun to vary by 155,000,000 km between aphelion and perihelion. The aphelion is the most distant part of the planet along its orbital planet while the perihelion is the closest.

Parts and features of Saturn that are visible to earth have different rates of rotation. This all depends on the latitude of the feature. There is different rotation periods assigned to different regions. The feature of Saturn known as System 1 rotates at a period of 10 hours and 14 minutes. This includes the Equatorial Zone. All the other latitude, known as System II has the same rotation period of 10 hours 39 minutes and 24 seconds. System III has been given the rotation period of 10 hours 39 minutes and 22.4 seconds. This data was taken from the radio emissions taken from the planet during the Voyager flybys.

Measurements taken from the Pioneer, Voyager and Cassini probes gave Saturn’s rotation speed at 10 hours 32 minutes and 35 seconds. This is the latest measurement of the rotation of the planet to date. A day on Saturn will take anywhere from 10 hours 14 minutes to 10 hours 39 minutes, depending on the regions of rotation.

The Planet Saturn

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