Saturn's Moons and Rings

The gas giant planet Saturn has a large group of moons. It also has the largest, most complex, and best-known ring system in our Solar System.

Saturn's moon Titan is one of the few moons in the Solar System with much of an atmosphere. It is also one of the largest moons in the Solar System.

Some of Saturn's moons are odd. A giant crater on Mimas makes it look like the "Death Star" from the Star Wars movies. Iapetus is quite dark on one side and very bright on the other. Hyperion is shaped like a garbage can. Prometheus and Pandora are called the "shepherd moons" because they herd particles into Saturn's "F ring". Phoebe is very dark and moves in a strange orbit. It may be an asteroid or Kuiper Belt Object that Saturn's strong gravity captured long ago.

The other medium-sized moons of Saturn are Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus, Janus and Epimetheus.

Some of Saturn's moons are icy moons. Most of the others are small moons which are basically large rocks in space. Some stories from old myths include characters that some of Saturn's moons were named after.

The two tables below list all of Saturn's know moons. One table lists them in order of size (largest to smallest). The other table linsts them in order of their distance from Saturn (closest to furthest).


The Moons of Saturn

Listed by Size
(Largest to Smallest)

Name
Size
(diameter or dimensions)
Titan
5,150 km
Rhea
1,528 km
Iapetus
1,436 km
Dione
1,120 km
Tethys
1,072 x 1,056 x 1,052 km
Enceladus
512 x 494 x 490 km
Mimas

418 x 392 x 382 km

Hyperion
370 x 280 x 226 km
Phoebe
230 x 220 x 210 km
Janus
194 x 190 x 154 km
Epimetheus
138 x 110 x 110 km
Prometheus
148 x 100 x 68 km
Pandora
110 x 88 x 62 km
Atlas
37 x 34.4 x 27 km
Helene
36 x 32 x 30 km
Siarnaq
32 km
Albiorix
26 km
Telesto
30 x 25 x 15 km
Pan
20 km
Calypso
30 x 16 x 16 km
Paaliaq
19 km
Ymir
16 km
Kiviuq
14 km
Tarvos
13 km
Ijiraq
10 km
Erriapo
8.6 km
S/2003 S1
6.6 km
Skathi
6.4 km
Mundilfari
5.6 km
Suttungr
5.6 km
Thrymr
5.6 km

In Order of
Distance from Saturn

Name
Average Distance
from the center of Saturn
Pan
133,600 km
Atlas
137,700 km
139,400 km
141,700 km
151,400 km
151,500 km
185,600 km
238,100 km
Calypso
294,700 km
Telesto
294,700 km
294,700 km
377,400 km
377,400 km
527,100 km

1,221,900 km

1,464,100 km

3,560,800 km

11,365,000 km

11,442,000 km

12,944,300 km

15,198,000 km

15,641,000 km

Albiorix

16,394,000 km

17,604,000 km

18,195,000 km

18,239,000 km

18,719,000 km
18,722,000 km
Suttungr

19,465,000 km

20,219,000 km

23,130,000 km

Last modified June 7, 2004 by Randy Russell.

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