In 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was the first to gaze at Saturn through a telescope. To his surprise, he saw a pair of objects on either side of the planet. He sketched them as separate spheres, thinking that Saturn was triple-bodied. Continuing his observations over the next few years, Galileo drew the lateral bodies as arms or handles attached to Saturn. In 1659, Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, using a more powerful telescope than Galileo's, proposed that Saturn was surrounded by a thin, flat ring. In 1675, Italian-born astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini discovered a "division" between what are now called the A and B rings. It is now known that the gravitational influence of Saturn's moon Mimas is responsible for the Cassini Division, which is 4,800 kilometers wide. Like Jupiter, Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen and helium. Its volume is 755 times greater than that of Earth. Winds in the upper atmosphere reach 500 meters per second in the equatorial region. These super-fast winds, combined with heat rising from within the planet's interior, cause the yellow and gold bands visible in the atmosphere. In the early 1980s, NASA's two Voyager spacecraft revealed that Saturn's rings are made mostly of water ice, and they imaged "braided" rings, ringlets, and "spokes" - dark features in the rings that form and initially circle the planet at different rates from that of the surrounding ring material. Saturn's ring system extends hundreds of thousands of kilometers from the planet, yet the vertical height is typically about 10 meters. Like Jupiter, Saturn has no "solid" surface.
Saturn's largest satellite, Titan, is a bit bigger than the planet Mercury. (Titan is the second-largest moon in the solar system; only Jupiter's moon Ganymede is bigger.) Titan is shrouded in a thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere that might be similar to what Earth's was like long ago. Further study of this moon promises to reveal much about planetary formation and, perhaps, about the early days of Earth. Saturn also has many smaller "icy" satellites. From Enceladus, which shows evidence of recent (and ongoing) surface changes, to Iapetus, with one hemisphere darker than asphalt and the other as bright as snow, each of Saturn's satellites is unique.
 Saturn's Rings-Detailed ViewBeautiful, glamorous and mysterious, Saturn's rings are among the most recognizable features in the solar system. They spread over hundreds of thousands of kilometers, yet they are extremely thin – perhaps only 10 meters (about 30 feet) thick. The rings consist of billions of individual particles of mostly water ice which create waves, wakes and other structures. |  Saturn Shadow Side ViewWith giant Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering Cassini from the sun's blinding glare, the spacecraft viewed the rings as never before, revealing previously unknown faint rings and even glimpsing its home world. |  Saturn's Moon TitanIn many respects, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is one of the most Earth-like worlds we have found to date. With its thick atmosphere and organic-rich chemistry, Titan resembles a frozen version of Earth, several billion years ago, before life began pumping oxygen into our atmosphere |
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 Saturn Rings False ColorBeautiful, glamorous and mysterious, Saturn's rings are among the most recognizable features in the solar system. They spread over hundreds of thousands of kilometers, yet they are extremely thin – perhaps only 10 meters (about 30 feet) thick. The rings consist of billions of individual particles of mostly water ice which create waves, wakes and other structures. |  Saturn Moon Collection |  Saturn Lightning StormCassini Captures a Lightning Storm at Saturn's Pole |
 Saturn's Rings ViewCassini Captures a Stunning View of The Rings |  Saturn's Rings ViewCassini Captures a Stunning View of The Rings |  Saturn's Rings Side View |
 Saturn View From VoyagerFirst Color Views of Saturn Were Captured by Voyager 1 / Voyager 2. |  Saturn View From VoyagerFirst Color Views of Saturn Were Captured by Voyager 1 / Voyager 2. |  Icy Enceladus ViewEnceladus is only 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter, but despite its petite size, it's one of the most scientifically compelling bodies in our solar system. It is quite similar in size to Mimas, but has a smoother, brighter surface. Enceladus reflects almost 100 percent of the sunlight that strikes it. |
 Icy Enceladus ViewEnceladus is only 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter, but despite its petite size, it's one of the most scientifically compelling bodies in our solar system. It is quite similar in size to Mimas, but has a smoother, brighter surface. Enceladus reflects almost 100 percent of the sunlight that strikes it. |  Icy Enceladus ViewEnceladus is only 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter, but despite its petite size, it's one of the most scientifically compelling bodies in our solar system. It is quite similar in size to Mimas, but has a smoother, brighter surface. Enceladus reflects almost 100 percent of the sunlight that strikes it. |