How Far Is Saturn From The Sun?
QUICK ANSWER
Saturn orbits an average of 886 million miles (1.43 billion km) from the Sun, about 9.5 times Earth's distance. A Saturn year takes about 29.5 Earth years to complete. Sunlight takes about 80 minutes to reach Saturn, compared to just 8 minutes to reach Earth.
Saturn is nearly a billion miles from the Sun, far enough that sunlight takes well over an hour to get there. The planet takes nearly three decades to complete a single orbit. Saturn is the last of the planets visible to the naked eye and the gateway to the truly distant outer solar system.
What is Saturn's average distance from the Sun?
According to NASA, Saturn orbits an average of 886 million miles (1.43 billion km) from the Sun, or about 9.5 astronomical units (AU). For reference, 1 AU is Earth's distance from the Sun, about 93 million miles. Saturn is the second-most distant of the gas giants (after Uranus and Neptune) and the farthest planet that can be seen with the naked eye from Earth. At Saturn's distance, the Sun looks about a tenth the size it does from Earth.
How long does Saturn take to orbit the Sun?
About 29.5 Earth years. Saturn's orbital speed is much slower than Earth's, about 21,500 mph compared to Earth's 67,000 mph. Combined with the much larger orbit, a Saturn year stretches across nearly three decades of Earth time. Saturn was Galileo's last planet to study; he died before Saturn could complete even half of one orbit around the Sun from when he first observed it in 1610. The planet's slow motion through the sky made it seem stately and old-fashioned to ancient observers.
How far is Saturn from Earth?
It varies between about 746 million and 1.03 billion miles, depending on where each planet is in its orbit. At opposition (when Saturn and Earth are on the same side of the Sun), Saturn is at its closest and brightest in our sky. At conjunction (opposite sides of the Sun), Saturn is farther away and hidden by the Sun's glare. Light travels from Saturn to Earth in roughly 70 to 90 minutes, depending on the planets' relative positions. Spacecraft communications have to account for these delays.
How much sunlight does Saturn get?
Much less than Earth. Because of the inverse-square law, the amount of sunlight per square mile drops dramatically with distance from the Sun. At Saturn's distance, sunlight is only about 1 percent as intense as at Earth's distance. The Sun still appears as a bright point of light from Saturn, much brighter than any star, but it doesn't provide nearly enough heat to warm the planet substantially. Saturn's surface temperatures stay around -288°F, far colder than anything on Earth.
Saturn sits nearly a billion miles from the Sun, with a year that stretches across 29.5 Earth years and sunlight intensities about 1 percent of what we experience. It's the farthest planet most people will ever see with the naked eye, and it marks the boundary between the familiar inner solar system and the truly distant outer one.
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