1. Sixth planet from the Sun and second largest in the system. The outermost planet known in classical times. 764 times Earth's volume, 94 times its mass. Orbits once in nearly 30 Earth years at a distance of roughly 925 million
miles. Gravity at cloud decks averages about 1.16 times that on Earth. The least dense planet in the system, overall density roughly .687 times that of
water. Diameter 74,898
miles through the equator, give or take five
miles; 67,560
miles through the poles, give or take 13
miles. Average temperature at visible cloud decks is about 185 degrees Centigrade below
zero. Atmosphere is mostly hydrogen with some helium and traces of other elements, similar but not identical to that of Jupiter. Cloud patterns appear more subdued than on Jupiter, due at least in part to an upper layer of haze. Best known for its bright and extensive ring system, consisting of countless trillions of blocks of (mainly) water
ice. Most of the ring system is within a diameter of 225,000
miles or so, but is only a few hundred feet
thick; scaled down to the size of a city, the rings would be as
thick as a sheet of newsprint. Saturn has a retinue of major satellites comparable to those around Jupiter; only one of them, Titan, is particularly large. The latter is an intriguing body recently imaged by the Cassini Probe and visited by the Huygens Lander, and the only moon in the solar system with an appreciable atmosphere.
2. Roman
god of
time and farming, equivalent to the Greek Kronos. Best known for his feeling of unease at the possibility that his sons would outdo him, which he assuaged in the most efficient way possible; by eating them. One of them, however, escaped. His
name was Jupiter, and the rest, as they say, is mythology.
3. The family of rockets used in the Apollo mission that (Uncle Sam, take a bow) landed humans on the Moon.
