The Moons of Saturn - Facts and Info

What is a Moon?

Before we begin to look for any moon we need to understand what we are looking for.

A moon, also known as a natural satellite, is a celestial body that makes an orbit around a planet. For this post, we are interested in the moons of Saturn.

Orbiting moons in the Solar System

There are many different moons, from large moons to small moons, in our Solar System orbiting our major planets, dwarf planets and minor planets.

In our Solar System, the 8 major planets located closest to the Sun are Mercury (the closest planet), then Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Earth’s moon is a natural satellite and the fifth largest moon in the Solar System overall.

As far as we are aware only Planet Earth is inhabited with life, although there are many theories that there might have been, or are, forms of alien life out there on other Planets.

Then there is Pluto (the smallest and now designated a Dwarf Planet).

Does every Planet have a Moon?

Most Planets have a moon(s), and they do not share their moons with other Planets:

Mercury and Venus do not have any moons
Planet Earth for example has only 1 moon
Mars has 2 moons
Jupiter has 79 moons (53 confirmed, 26 not yet)
Saturn has 82 moons (53 confirmed, 29 not yet officially named)
Uranus has 27 moons
Neptune has 14 moons
Even the tiny Dwarf Planet Pluto has small moons.

The moons of Saturn and Jupiter’s moons are more numerous than the moons of the other Planets in our Solar System. (Jupiter has the most moons and Saturn has the second most moons in the Solar System)

We usually associate the position of the major Planets in the Solar System with their position and distance from our biggest Star in the sky – the Sun.

The closest Planets to the Sun

So, how do we remember where they are in our Solar System, from the closest to the Sun to the farthest?

There are a few rhymes and mnemonics to help us do this:

A popular rhyme:

1. First is Mercury that’s closest to the Sun

2. Then comes Venus the hot second one

3. Earth is third but not so hot

4. Fourth is Mars, freezing and waiting for an Astronaut

5. Jupiter is big

6. Saturn is sixth with a ring not hid

7. Uranus, the Neptune, each a big gas ball

Then comes tiny Pluto now called a Dwarf, not a big Planet at all.

Or the mnemonic –

My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Noodles

The Four Giant Planets in our Solar System

There are four giant planets in our solar system: Jupiter (the largest with most moons overall), Saturn (2nd largest), Uranus (3rd largest), and Neptune (4th largest).

Each of these giant Planets has inner moons orbiting them:

Jupiter has 4 inner moons orbiting it, Saturn has 4 inner moons, Uranus has 13 inner moons, and Neptune has 14 inner moons.

These inner moons/satellites currently identified with these 4 Giant Planets were formed at the same time as their Planet.

They are small and difficult to see by naked eye from Earth as they suffer from glare from their Planet.

Let’s focus on Saturn and its Moons

Saturn is the second largest Planet in our solar system, after Jupiter, and the 6th furthest from the Sun.

It is mostly recognized as the large Red Planet with rings – Saturn’s Rings. There are 14 sub-divisions of its rings with the widest ring, the B ring, measuring 25,500 km.

Planet Saturn, the Saturnian Moons (Satellites) and Rings:

How many moons does the Planet Saturn have? –

Titan is Saturn’s largest Moon but it is not Saturn’s only moon, it has a total of 150 moons and moonlets. Most are fairly small with a low density, and many more tiny moonlets, like Methane or sometime called Methone .

Of the 82 moons orbiting Saturn

53 are named and regarded as irregular satellites, and have a mix of prograde orbits and retrograde orbits
24 are regular satellites with a prograde orbit.

The 53/62 of the orbiting Moons of Saturn are currently named and approved by the International Astronomic Union (IAU).

The remaining moons (satellites) have not been named yet, so they have been allocated a numerical designation that links them to the orbit of Planet Saturn, and the year in which they were discovered. Saturnian moons are numerous and they are diverse in characteristics and size.

They range from Titan (Saturn’s largest and earliest moon to be discovered) down to tiny icy moonlets (Minor Moons).The Titan Moon has an orange hazy appearance and is larger than the Planet Mercury.

The Moons of Saturn range from around 300 meters in diameter to around 5150 kilometers. Most of Saturn’s moons are small, icy moons that exist in Saturn’s famous ring system. Most of the larger moons (also known as satellites) of Saturn keep one side facing Saturn as they rotate within their orbital period.

There are 24 regular satellites/Moons in Saturn including – the 7 major moons, another 4 smaller moons that exist in a Trojan orbit with the larger moons and 2 co-orbital moons that guard Saturn’s F Ring.

The other moons of Saturn are located around the other Rings such as the G Ring between Mimas and Enceladus, and E-Ring where the Dione Moon is located.

The Saturnian moons can be categorized as inner and outer moons using the position of the E Ring as the border. These moons are some of the largest and most spectacular in the whole Solar System reaching sizes of over 5,000 km.

The Sheppard (Shepherd) moons

The Sheppard moons have a role to shepherd the contents of a planetary ring for a Planet like Saturn. These Shepherd (sheppard) moons keep the rings in order, organized and neat in appearance. The Sheppard Moons act in pairs

Saturn has several sheppard or shepherd moons organizing the rings, which are actually made up of several rings not a single body.

The shepherd moons create order together by pushing and pulling in operate directions.

The inner moons push particles away from themselves into the ring.
The outer moons push particles back into the rings, which keeps the boundary neat. If they are pushed too far they will end up on the surface of the moon thanks to gravity forces.

Perhaps the two best known sheppard moons of Saturn are Pandora and Prometheus, which are shepherds of the Saturn F Ring. There is lots of activity going on around the Planet Saturn helping to maintain its famous rings.

The major moons closest to Saturn are:

Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Iapetus, Hyperion and Titan (the largest moon of Saturn)

FACT: Many Space objects have been named after the Titans but just who were the Titans? In Greek Mythology the Titans were the race of immortals that ruled the universe, before the rise of Olympians, with Cronus as King, and Rhea as Queen. Cronus (or Kronus) was the father of Zeus.

The Inner Moons of Saturn

The names and general features of the Inner moons and the outer moons of Saturn

The larger Inner moons of Saturn include:

Dione
Tethys
Enceladus
Mimas

Each inner moon of Saturn has been observed by the NASA Cassini Huygens flyby mission and discovered that some are icy moons constantly having small particles from Saturn’s rings falling onto them, ranging from water ice particles to ice grains.

These larger inner moons are mostly composed of water ice, with a rocky core and an icy mantel and crust. The inner moons are all different differing in size, characteristics and shape. Their organic molecules content determines their color.

The innermost moons and regular moons have prograde orbits and fairly small orbital inclinations. Generally the innermost moons contain iron and red organic molecules and material are redder in color than the outer ones.

The outermost of the ‘inner icy moons’, are blue in color because they have an icy crust and icy surface due to the water ice and water vapor from the liquid plumes that spew out of their larger neighboring moon Enceladus.

The Saturnian Moon of Enceladus has an effect on the surface conditions of many of the other moons of Saturn. Its geysers spew water ice, and ice particles, which cover the surfaces of other neighboring moons.

Who discovered the main icy moons of Saturn?

There were 4 new moons of Saturn discovered in 1684 by the Italian-French mathematician and astronomer Giovanni Cassini.

Dione and Tethys (Inner moons)
Rhea and Iapetus (Outer Moons)

How did this happen?

In 1669, King Louis XIV of France appointed Cassini as Director of The Paris Observatory and to serve as his court astronomer/astrologer.

Cassini continued to balance his interest in mathematics and astronomy and in 1684 he discovered a pair of moons orbiting Saturn – they were named Iapetus and Rhea. He then discovered another 2 moons of Saturn and called them Tethys and Dione in honor of the Titans.

He collectively named these 4 moons ‘Sidera Lodoicea’, meaning the ‘Stars of Louis’, in recognition of his King and employer, King Louis XIV of France.

Neighboring ice moons Mimas and Enceladus were discovered by William Herschel in 1789, and his son John Herschel continued his good work for many years after his death.

It was actually John Herschel, in 1847, who suggested the Moons of Saturn should be named after Titans, or family of Cronus from Greek mythology (known as Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture and harvest, in Roman Mythology).

How were the inner moons of Saturn discovered?

The inner moons of Saturn have been observed and photographed in detail over the years by NASA spacecraft flybys missions by ‘Voyager’, (Voyager 1, Voyager 2), and NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

FACT: E.E. Barnard discovered the very first inner moon/satellite in 1892. It orbits the Planet Jupiter and is called ‘Amalthea.

In 1966 the Saturnian moons – Janus and Epimetheus – were first observed and classified as the 10th and 11th satellites of Saturn. They are interesting as they share the same orbit, which initially caused come confusion. Could there really be two moons in the same field?

We are grateful to NASA for its variety of inner moon images, which helped clarify the positions and movement of these Saturnian moons.

It was NASA’s Cassini spacecraft mission that brought us images in graphic detail of these moons from its close flybys of these ice moons in 2005

NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft has brought us close up images of these moons forming unusual water ice surfaces that sometimes hide a very different composition ranging from a rocky core to global oceans.

The recent discovery of new Moons for Saturn

In addition to the various NASA spacecraft missions there are new moons are being discovered by ground based telescope activity.

13 new irregular moons have recently been discovered.
In 2005, the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii (named after the dormant volcano Mauna Kea, which is one of 6 volcanoes that formed the island of Hawaii), discovered another 12 small Outer Moons
In 2006, the Mauna Kea Observatory used the Japanese Subaru Telescope to discover another 9 new moons.
The in 2007, the Moon Tarqeq was discovered.

Details of the Inner moons

In order of location to Saturn:

Mimas (10th furthest),
Enceladus (14th furthest)
Tethys (15th furthest)
Dione (18th furthest)

Dione –

The moon Dione is the largest inner moon and ranks as the 4th largest of the major Saturnian moons. It is only around 20% of the size of Titan (the largest Saturnian moon)

Dione is also known as Saturn IV, as it was the 4th one to be numbered by its discoverer. It is one of the larger icy moons affected by the ice spew from Enceladus.

It is the 15th largest moon overall in the Solar System, with a diameter of 697 miles (1,122Km), and a radius of348.8 miles (561.4km) and an equatorial circumference of 3529 km.

Dione has a low density, suggests it is composed of water ice like its neighboring moons, Rhea and Tethys, however Dione has a higher density than Rhea (which is the largest inner moon but geologically dead), but has a lower density than Enceladus.

Dione’s surface has a mix of terrain, perhaps its most notable feature is its large impact cratering and bright streaks.

This is one of the brightest of all of the Saturnian moons as it reflects light from its icy surface.

Saturn IV ‘s orbital distance from Saturn is 234,500 miles (377,400 km). This is roughly the same distance from Planet Earth to its only moon.

The moon Dione has a mass of around two thirds water ice and its densest part is its rocky core, which is likely to be composed of silicate rock. It has large ice cliffs formed by fractures in the ice and many ice craters on the surface too.

Temperature

The icy surface of Dione is similar to Tethys has a temperature of around -187 degrees Centigrade (-307 degrees Fahrenheit).

Orbital Radius

The average orbit distance from Dione to the center of Saturn is around 200,000km. The orbital period takes the equivalent of 2.7 Earth days (it takes 64.8 hours approximately to orbit once around Saturn)

Eccentricity

FACT: Eccentricity is the measure of the deviation of the Earth’s orbit from a circular object, using the scale where 0 is a circular orbit, anything from 0 to1, is elliptical to highly elliptical orbit (HEO), and 1 and over is parabolic.

For Dione its orbital eccentricity of orbit is 0.0022, which means it has a close to circular type prograde orbit around Saturn. is the round shape we usually associate with a Moon.

The estimated age is around 4 billion years.

Tethys –

Tethys is the second largest of the inner moons of Saturn

It is a mid-sized moon and ranks as the 5th largest of the 7 major Saturnian moons, and is around 20% of the size of Titan (the largest of the seven)

Tethys is the 16th largest moon overall in the Solar System and is more massive than the combined size of all the other known moons that are smaller that it.

It has a diameter of 1063 km, and is located at a distance of 0.294 million km from host Planet Saturn.

Tethys is a heavily cratered moon with a large number of fissures or fault lines over its surface. The largest surface fault on Tethys is called Ithaca Chasma.

Ithaca Chasma is around 1243 miles (2000km) in length and around 249 miles (400 km) wide.

Saturn’s Moon Tethys is an irregular shaped, cold and airless cratered moon. It looks like an unusual eyeball due to the location of a huge impact crater called Odysseus, and a network of central peaks, on its surface.

It was the impact of a massive collision that shaped the surface appearance of this moon. This impact formed the Odysseus crater and its rebound impact is likely to have caused the central peak shapes in the center of the crater too.

There is no geological activity on Tethys. It is one of Saturn´s larger icy moons, sometimes presenting with a bright and colored cratered surface. The trailing hemisphere of Tethys becomes darker and redder as the anti-apex of motion is approached.

This moon’s surface streaked areas are sometimes described as red arcs.

Enceladus –

Enceladus, also the name of a Giant from Greek Mythology, is the 6th largest Moon of the 7 major moons of Saturn. Although it is considered a fairly small moon as it is only around 10% of the size of Titan (the largest moon in Saturn).

Enceladus has a spherical shape and one of the smaller moons, and this moon’s orbit of Saturn is at a distance of 237,948 km with an orbital period of 1.4 days.

It has a diameter of 504 km and a mass of 1.1×1020 kg, with a surface area of 789,648.27 square kilometers . The equatorial circumference of Enceladus is 1584 km, and it is located at a distance of 0.237 million km from host Planet Saturn.

A cross section of the moon Enceladus would show a rocky core in the center, then a global ocean and a bright ice crust on the surface.

What Lies Beneath?

Enceladus has a massive subsurface ocean. Its hydrothermal vents blend material from the porous core and water from this subsurface ocean and eject it into Space as water vapor and ice grains. It is known to reach some neighboring moons and create an icy surface on those moons.

The icy surface of Enceladus has a temperature of around -198 degrees Centigrade (-324 degrees Fahrenheit), with an icy crust.

As it orbits Saturn it creates a spray of ice particles, which form a circle around Saturn known as Saturn’s E Ring.

This is an exciting Moon to observe and is famous for its tiger stripe pattern on its surface and icy plumes that spew icy particles out of geysers and this spray reaches other neighboring moons.

Mimas –

Mimas is the innermost major moon of Saturn, located around 115,000 miles (186,000 km) from this Planet.

It is also the smallest, and least massive of the inner moons with a mean radius of 123 miles (198 km).

At this size it is not large enough to hold a circular shape, so it is formed in an Ovoid shape and it is covered in impact craters. Some of these craters are as large as 25 miles (40 lm) in diameter, yet the craters on the South pole area are smaller in diameter.

Mimas is tidally locked which means it keeps the same side facing Saturn during its orbiting journey around this Planet.

It orbits Saturn at a distance of 185,539km at an orbital period of 0.9 days, (22 hours, 36 mins) witha diameter of 396 km and a mass of 0.4×1020 kg.

It has a low density, which suggests that it is almost entirely composed of water ice.

Mimas is famous for its huge surface impact crater called ‘The Herschel Crater’, named after the astronomer who discovered it, John Herschel.

Mimas was named after the Greek Giant who was killed by Mars in the war between the Titans and the Olympus gods from Greek Mythology.

The Outer Moons of Saturn

The larger Outer moons of Saturn (defined as those moons orbiting outside the E Ring)

In order of their close location to Saturn:

Rhea (21st furthest),
Titan (22nd furthest)
Hyperion (23rd furthest)
Iapetus (24th furthest)

Rhea –

Rhea has a diameter of 1527.6 km, and is located at a distance of 0.527 million km from host Planet Saturn.

Titan –

Titan is the largest Moon of Saturn, and the second largest Moon in the whole Solar System, following Ganymede the largest Moon in the Planet Jupiter.

In terms of size, Titan is 50% wider than Planet Earths moon and larger than Planet Mercury. It has a diameter of around 5150 km, and is located at a distance of 1.2 million km from host Planet Saturn.

Hyperion –

Hyperion has a diameter of 270 km, and is located at a distance of 1.4 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Iapetus –

Iapetus has a diameter of 1468.5 km, and is located at a distance of 3.5 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Additional Outer Moons

Since the 1980’s additional Outer Moons have been discovered by NASA’s Voyager Space probe.

In order of their location to Saturn:

Pan (2nd furthest)
Atlas (4th furthest)
Prometheus (5th furthest)
Pandora (6th furthest)

Pan

Pan has a diameter of 28.2 km, and is located at a distance of 0.133 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Atlas

Atlas has a diameter of 30.2 km, and is located at a distance of 0.137 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Prometheus

Prometheus has a diameter of 82.6 km, and is located at a distance of 0.139 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Pandora

Pandora has a diameter of 86.2km, and is located at a distance of 0.141 million km from the host Planet Saturn. It is the only irregular moon of Saturn not named after Inuit, Gallic or Norse gods and giants.

Although the Outer Moons orbit outside of the E-Ring of Saturn they are similar in composition to the Inner Moons. They are mainly composed of water ice and rock.

The surface features are often similar with impact features common across both categories. However, Titan is the only moon with liquid on its surface and possibly a subsurface ocean, like our Planet Earth.

The Irregular Moons of Saturn

The Irregular Moons of Saturn are located beyond the Outer Moons. They are generally inclined, small moons with a large radii and known for orbiting in a retrograde direction.

The Irregular Moons are categorized into three individual groups:

The Inuit Group
The Gallic Group
The Norse Group

Looking at the make up of the three groups of Irregular Satellites/Moons –

The Inuit Group

There are 5 irregular moons making up the Inuit Group and each is named after a character in Inuit mythology.

The Inuit irregular Moons, in order of location to Saturn:

Kiviuq (25th furthest)
Ijiraq (26th furthest)
Paaliaq (28th furthest)
Siarnaq (38th furthest)
Tarqeq (39th furthest)

Kiviuq

Kiviuq has a diameter of 17 km, and is located at a distance of 11.2 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Ijiraq

Ijiraq has a diameter of 13 km, and is located at a distance of 11.3 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Paaliaq

Paaliaq has a diameter of 25 km, and is located at a distance of 15.1 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Siarnaq

Siarnaq has a diameter of 40 km, and is located at a distance of 17.8 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Tarqeq

Tarqeq has a diameter of 7 km, and is located at a distance of 17.9 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Each satellite in the Inuit group has a prograde orbit ranging from 11.1 – 17.9 million kilometers, and between 7 – 40 kilometers in diameter.

The Gallic Group

Albiorix (32nd furthest)
Bebhionn (33rd furthest)
Erriapus (35th furthest)
Tarvos (42nd furthest)

Albiorix

Albiorix has a diameter of 28.5 km, and is located at a distance of 16.4 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Bebhionn

Bebhionn has a diameter of 6 km, and is located at a distance of 16.8 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Erriapus

Erriapus has a diameter of 10 km, and is located at a distance of 17.4 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Tarvos

Tarvos has a diameter of 15 km, and is located at a distance of 18.4 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

The Norse Group

The Norse Group has 29 Outer Moons that are named after characters in Norse Mythology. These moons orbit in a retrograde direction. There are 25 moons in this group still to be named!

This group is also referred to as the Phoebe Group after one of the larger moons in the group and includes the better known Moons: –

Phoebe (27th furthest)
Mundilfari (43rd furthest)
Ymir (78th furthest)

Phoebe

Phoebe is the largest Moon in the Norse group of moons and has a diameter of 213 km, and is located at a distance of 12.9 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Mundilfari

Mundilfari has a diameter of 7 km, and is located at a distance of 18.5 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Ymir

(Second largest Moon) Ymirhas a diameter of 19 km, and is located at a distance of 23.6 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Other notable moons in the Norse group include Greip, Fenrir and Aegir.

The Alkyonide Group

The Alkyonide Group of moons is located within the Inner and Outer Large Moons of Saturn. They are named after characters from Greek Mythology – The Alkyonides, and include:

Methone (11th furthest)
Anthe (12th furthest)
Pallene (13th furthest)

Methone

Methone has a diameter of 2.9 km, and is located at a distance of 0.194 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Anthe

Anthe has a diameter of 1.8 km, and is located at a distance of 0.197 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

Pallene

Pallene has a diameter of 4.4 km, and is located at a distance of 0.212 million km from the host Planet Saturn.

The Trojan Moons

Some of the larger Moons of Saturn have their own Moons that are known as Trojan Moons

The Tethys Moon – has 2 Trojan Moons – Telesto and Calypso
The Dione Moon – has 2 Trojan Moons – Helene and Polydeuces

The Top 10 closest Moons to Saturn in order of distance:

1. The closest Saturnian Moon has not been names yet and is known as S/2009 S

2. Pan

3. Daphnis

4. Atlas

5. Prometheus

6. Pandora

7. Epimetheus

8. Janus

9. Aegaeon

10. Mimas

The NASA Cassini spacecraft research missions

As some of the inner moons of Saturn are not visible by naked eye we rely on observations from various Nasa spacecraft missions for details.

Images have been captured and shared by the Cassini Spacecraft missions, JPL and the Space Science Institute (SSI)

FACT: NASA aims to explore, discover and expand our knowledge for the benefit of mankind. As well as facilitating spacecraft missions, via Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 and the Cassini Huygens Spacecraft missions, it also has a National Laboratory in Space.

NASA’s Cassini-Huygens spacecraft during its flybys in 2005 has captured the best ever detailed images of many different moons during the same mission.

These missions conformed that Dione is the third largest icy moon after Iapetus and Rhea.

Saturn’s rings

It was Giovanni Domenico Cassini, in 1675, who discovered that ‘the Ring of Saturn’ was not one single ring, but rather it was made up of several smaller rings.

The rings are named from A to G, in the order in which they were discovered and are not solid rings but are composed of ice particles and water ice, with gaps in between them.

The distance between the gaps is not equal in each ring, they vary considerably.

The closest ring to Planet Saturn is the D Ring, then C Ring,B Ring, followed by A Ring and then F Ring, and finally the two fainter Rings, G Ring and E Ring.

Saturn’s E Ring is the outermost ring of the major rings.

The Moon Dione orbits within the densest area of Saturn’s E Ring, close to neighboring moons Tethys and Enceladus.

The Geography of a Moon

The Moons of Saturn are grouped according to their proximity to Saturn, their orbit and size.

The surface features for the Dione are fascinating for scientists as more craters are found on the trailing hemisphere (backside of this moon) than the leading hemisphere (front side of this moon.

The opposite is normal for other moons and the front side/leading hemisphere would normally storm through space debris and take the impact of travelling objects.

The only explanation is that perhaps during some impact on this moon Dione was spun around. However for it to be spun around exactly 180 degrees poses a mystery!

Observations – What’s passing by, what’s changing?

The Moons of Saturn are all quite different, in size and shape depending on their own gravity. It is difficult to know the exact number of Saturnian Moons as the rings are made up of a range of objects and fragments, each with their own orbits and that makes it difficult to determine what is what in the rings and around.

The terrain varies from rocky material to icy and heavily cratered surfaces. The orbiting periods have a wide range, from 12 Earth hours right up to orbits in excess of 4 Earth years.

The orbiting Moons of Saturn are not evenly sized. In fact the largest Moon Titan represents more than 96% of the orbiting mass around Saturn, the 6 other ellipsoidal moons combined represent about 4% of the orbiting mass (including Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, Enceladus and the smallest of this group, Mimas. The rings and the 75 other small moons represent only 0.4% of the mass in orbit around Saturn.

Fun Facts:

Saturn is sometimes referred to as ‘The Jewel of the Solar System’
The low temperature at the point where Saturn is in the Solar nebula suggests that water ice was the main solid component from which all these moons were formed
It is believed that Saturn and Jupiter could be relatives, as they are very similar in their atmospheric composition
Planetary Science is fascinated in the idea of finding alien life on another planet or moon, so where there is a confirmed water source and atmosphere we are particularly interested in any investigations
Saturn has a number of moons not yet officially confirmed, and named, as moons.
Saturn is the least dense and flattest planet in the Solar System
Earth passes through the Saturn ring plane approximately every 13 to 15 years
Saturn has 56 confirmed Moons and the other 3 Moons, often associated with Saturn,are not yet confirmed as Moons, and for this reason Saturn is sometimes referred to as the ‘Moon King”
The Planet Saturn is tilted
The JPL imaging operations center is based at SSI (the Space Science Institute) in Colorado, USA
The Cassini-Huygens Mission is a joint collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ISA)
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft was in the Saturnian system from 2004 to 2017
The naming of Astronomical Bodies is now strictly controlled by the International Astronomical Union (IAU)

Image Sources:

Four Giant Planets: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/courses-images/wp-content/uploads/sites/1095/2016/11/03155631/OSC_Astro_11_00_GiantPlan.jpg
Dione Moon: By NASA https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92817828
Tethys Moon: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/system/content_pages/main_images/896_PIA08400_768.jpg
Enceladus Moon: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/system/content_pages/main_images/486_PIA11133.jpg
Mimas Moon: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10371541
Rhea Moon: By NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3265597
Titan Moon: By NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute – https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44822294
Hyperion Moon: By NASA / JPL / SSI / Gordan Ugarkovic – https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2558445
Iapetus Moon: By NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute – https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2885080
Pan (2nd furthest) Moon: By NASA, Matúš Motlo – https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57190751
Atlas (4th furthest) Moon: By NASA https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58006203
Prometheus (5th furthest) Moon: By NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute – https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8845622
Pandora (6th furthest) Moon: By NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54346043
Saturn’s rings: By NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute – https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29592312