Saturn vs Jupiter
The two largest planets — both gas giants, with strikingly different characters.
Saturn
The ringed gas giant.
- Order from Sun
- Sixth planet
- Type
- Gas giant
- Famous feature
- Prominent ring system
- Notable moon
- Titan, which has a thick atmosphere
Jupiter
The largest planet — a banded gas giant.
- Order from Sun
- Fifth planet
- Type
- Gas giant
- Size
- Largest planet in the Solar System
- Famous feature
- The Great Red Spot, a long-lived storm
Shared characteristics
Connections both Saturn and Jupiter share in the knowledge graph.
- Astronomer
Giovanni Cassini
Giovanni Domenico Cassini was the founding director of the Paris Observatory. He discovered four of Saturn's moons and the dark gap in its rings now called the Cassini Division, and his measurement of the parallax of Mars helped fix the…
- Space mission
Pioneer 11
Pioneer 11 flew past Jupiter and became the first spacecraft to encounter Saturn.
- Observing planner
Planet Planner
Which planets are visible tonight and where, from the platform's computed planetary positions and their altitudes through the night. Jupiter and Saturn to Mercury's fleeting apparitions.
- Location
Solar System
The Sun and the bodies gravitationally bound to it.
- Atlas view
Solar System Explorer
An explorer of the Sun's family — the planets, their moons, and the small bodies between them. The data model carries each body's real orbital and physical parameters and is prepared for a future interactive three-dimensional scene; today it presents the ordered, to-scale structure of the system.
- Space mission
Voyager 1
Voyager 1 is a NASA space probe launched in 1977 that explored Jupiter and Saturn and has since become the most distant human-made object, traveling in interstellar space.
- Space mission
Voyager 2
Voyager 2 is a NASA space probe launched in 1977 and the only spacecraft to have flown past all four giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Related entities
Sources & references
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.
- NASA JPLJet Propulsion Laboratory / Solar System Dynamics
Orbital data, ephemerides, and small-body parameters for planets, asteroids, and comets.