Saturn has 18 known Moons (satellites), more than any other planet. There may very well be several small ones yet to be discovered. It's large ring system was created by a Moon that got too close to Saturn and was pulled apart by the planets gravity. The remaining particles continue to break up into smaller and smaller particles that orbit the planet saturn.
Saturn is the 6th planet from the
sun. Its distance is 9.5 times further from the Sun than Earth's
distance the Sun. Saturn
takes 29 years and 167 days to make one complete revolution around the
Sun. Although Saturn weighs a lot more than Earth, it's density is
less than water which means that if you had a big enough bath tub, you
could float Saturn in it!
Saturn's Moon System
Distance from Radius
Mass
Satellite
Saturn ( km)
(km) (kg)
Discoverer Date
--------- -------- ------ -------
---------- -----
Pan
134,000
10
?
Showalter 1990
Atlas
138,000
14
?
Terrile 1980
Prometheus 139,000
46 2.70e17*
Collins 1980 *e
= exponent. 2.7e17 is 2.7x1017 which is
Pandora
142,000
46 2.20e17
Collins 1980
270,000,000,000,000,000 ...
Epimetheus 151,000
57 5.60e17
Walker 1980
( 17 digits after the decimal place)
Janus (twins) 151,000
89 2.01e18
Dollfus 1966
Mimas
186,000
196 3.80e19
Herschel 1789
Enceladus
238,000
260 8.40e19
Herschel 1789
Tethys
295,000
530 7.55e20
Cassini 1684
Telesto
295,000
15
?
Reitsema 1980
Calypso
295,000
13
?
Pascu 1980
Dione
377,000
560 1.05e21
Cassini 1684
Helene
377,000
16
?
Laques 1980
Rhea
527,000
765 2.49e21
Cassini 1672
Titan
1,222,000 2575
1.35e23 Huygens
1655
Hyperion 1,481,000
143 1.77e19
Bond 1848
Iapetus
3,561,000
730 1.88e21
Cassini 1671
Phoebe 12,952,000
110
4.00e18 Pickering
1898
Of those moons for which rotation rates are
known, all but Phoebe and Hyperion rotate synchronously.
The three pairs Mimas-Tethys, Enceladus-Dione
and Titan-Hyperion interact gravitationally in such a way as to
maintain stable relationships between their
orbits:
The period of Mimas' orbit is exactly half
that of Tethys, they are thus said to be in a 1:2 resonance;
Enceladus-Dione are also 1:2; Titan-Hyperion
are in a 3:4 resonance.
In addition to the 18 named satellites, at
least a dozen more have been reported and given provisional designations.