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With an average orbital speed of 9.68 km/s, [6] it takes Saturn 10,759 Earth days (or about 29 + 1 ⁄ 2 years) [86] to finish one revolution around the Sun. [6] As a consequence, it forms a near 5:2 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter. [87] The elliptical orbit of Saturn is inclined 2.48° relative to the orbital plane of the Earth. [6]
According to the IAU's explicit count, there are eight planets in the Solar System; four terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) and four giant planets, which can be divided further into two gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and two ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). When excluding the Sun, the four giant planets account for more than ...
The sun passes south to north through the ring plane when Saturn's heliocentric longitude is 173.6 degrees (e.g. 11 August 2009), about the time Saturn crosses from Leo to Virgo. 15.7 years later Saturn's longitude reaches 353.6 degrees and the sun passes to the south side of the ring plane.
The sizes and masses of many of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are fairly well known due to numerous observations and interactions of the Galileo and Cassini orbiters; however, many of the moons with a radius less than ~100 km, such as Jupiter's Himalia, have far less certain masses. [5]
Venus orbit (Cytherocentric orbit, named after Cytherea, or Aphrodiocentric, after Aphrodite): An orbit around the planet Venus. Jupiter orbit (Zenocentric orbit, named after Zeus, [3] or Latin equivalent Jovicentric): An orbit around the planet Jupiter. Saturn orbit (Kronocentric orbit, named after Cronus, [3] [failed verification] or Latin ...
For instance, for completing an orbit every 24 hours around a mass of 100 kg, a small body has to orbit at a distance of 1.08 meters from the central body's center of mass. In the special case of perfectly circular orbits, the semimajor axis a is equal to the radius of the orbit, and the orbital velocity is constant and equal to
Get your telescope ready in September, when Saturn will take center stage in the sky and shine brighter than at any other point in the year. The planet will reach opposition on Sept. 21, around ...
The asteroid and comet belts orbit the Sun from the inner rocky planets into outer parts of the Solar System, interstellar space. [16] [17] [18] An astronomical unit, or AU, is the distance from Earth to the Sun, which is approximately 150 billion meters (93 million miles). [19] Small Solar System objects are classified by their orbits: [20] [21]