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50 free Saturn trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Saturn trivia quiz is about the planet, the one everybody recognises. It covers the rings first: what they are made of, how absurdly thin they are, Galileo's confusion, Huygens's discovery, the Cassini Division, the shepherd moons and the vanishing act every 15 years. Then the planet itself: lighter than water, the most flattened, a hexagon at the north pole, a warm vortex at the south, winds second only to Neptune's, helium rain inside and a 29-year orbit. The moons get their due, from Titan's methane lakes and thick atmosphere to Enceladus's geysers, Herschel's Mimas, wayward Phoebe and the tally of 293. Exploration follows Pioneer 11, the Voyagers, Cassini's 13 years in orbit, Huygens's landing, thousand-times lightning and the Grand Finale plunge, plus the Dragonfly rotorcraft to come. A final group looks at the god of the Golden Age, Cronus and Father Time, Saturnalia, Saturday, Shani, the earth star and Phainon. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on each question, so it works for a classroom, a pub quiz or a space enthusiast. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Planets and Solar System quizzes for more.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Where does Saturn rank in distance from the Sun?
Sixth
It is the second-largest planet, after Jupiter, and the farthest one easily seen with the naked eye.
Q 02Saturn is the only planet in the Solar System with which property?
Less dense than water
Its average density is 0.69 g/cm3, about 30% less than water, so in principle it would float.
Q 03Saturn's rings are made mainly of what?
Water ice
There is a little rocky debris and a peppering of about 7% amorphous carbon.
Q 04Roughly how thick are Saturn's main rings on average?
About 20 metres
They stretch out over 120,000 km from the planet yet are thinner than many buildings are tall.
Q 05Who first recognised Saturn's rings for what they were, in 1655?
Christiaan Huygens
Galileo in 1610 had taken the bulges for two moons flanking the planet.
Q 06What did Galileo mistake Saturn's rings for in 1610?
Two moons beside the planet
His telescope was too weak to resolve them; Huygens settled the matter forty-five years later.
Q 07Who discovered the largest gap in Saturn's rings, in 1675, and has it named after him?
Giovanni Cassini
He also found the moons Iapetus, Rhea, Tethys and Dione.
Q 08How long does Saturn take to orbit the Sun?
About 29.5 years
That is 10,759 Earth days, forming a near 5:2 resonance with Jupiter's orbit.
Q 09Saturn is about how many times more massive than Earth?
95
Jupiter is 318 Earth masses; together the two hold 92% of all planetary mass in the Solar System.
Q 10What geometric shape surrounds Saturn's north pole in a persistent cloud pattern?
A hexagon
Each side is about 14,500 km, longer than Earth's diameter; it was first spotted in Voyager images.
Q 11Saturn's winds are the second fastest of any planet. Which planet's are faster?
Neptune
Voyager measured peak Saturnian winds of 500 m/s, or 1,800 km/h.
Q 12Saturn is the most oblate planet. Its equatorial radius exceeds its polar radius by over what?
10%
Fast rotation plus low density bulges the equator out to 60,268 km against 54,364 km at the poles.
Q 13What unusual process may help Saturn radiate 2.5 times more energy than it receives from the Sun?
Helium 'raining out' inside the planet
Falling helium droplets release heat by friction; some models even suggest diamond rain.
Q 21Which two moons of Saturn did William Herschel discover in 1789?
Mimas and Enceladus
Mimas has a giant crater named Herschel that gives it a Death Star look.
Q 22Which moon, found in 1899, was the first known irregular satellite of Saturn?
Phoebe
William Henry Pickering found it; it also feeds a huge, faint, tilted outer ring.
Q 23Small moons such as Pandora and Prometheus are called 'shepherds'. What do they do?
Confine the ring material and stop it spreading
Pan and Atlas raise faint density waves that let scientists weigh the rings.
Q 14Saturn's core is thought to reach roughly what temperature?
11,700 °C
It is a 'diffuse core' of rock and ice grading outward through 60% of the planet's radius.
Q 15How many known moons does Saturn have, according to the article?
293
Only 63 have formal names; the count excludes hundreds of moonlets in the rings.
Q 16What is the name of Saturn's largest moon, the second-largest moon in the Solar System?
Titan
It makes up more than 90% of all the mass orbiting Saturn, rings included.
Q 17Saturn's largest moon is unique among moons for having what?
A dense atmosphere
Its surface pressure is 1.45 times Earth's, and its skies are mostly nitrogen and methane.
Q 18The lakes and seas on the surface of Saturn's largest moon are filled with what?
Liquid methane and ethane
It is the only world besides Earth with stable liquid on its surface, though at −180 °C.
Q 19Which small icy moon of Saturn shoots geysers of water from its south pole?
Enceladus
Over 100 jets feed Saturn's E ring, and NASA has called it perhaps the most habitable spot beyond Earth.
Q 20Most of Saturn's moons are traditionally named after what?
Titans of Greek mythology
Shakespeare's characters belong to Uranus; Saturn's family tree starts with the Titans, Cronus's siblings.
Q 24Roughly how often does Earth cross Saturn's ring plane, making the rings seem to vanish?
About every 15 years
Twice a Saturnian year; crossings occurred in 2009 and again in 2025.
Q 25Which spacecraft made the first flyby of Saturn, in September 1979?
Pioneer 11
It passed within 20,000 km of the cloud tops but its pictures were low-resolution.
Q 26Which spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn on 1 July 2004 and stayed for 13 years?
Cassini–Huygens
It was a joint NASA, ESA and Italian Space Agency mission.
Q 27The Huygens probe, released by Cassini, landed on which moon in January 2005?
Titan
It was the first landing in the outer Solar System, after a two-and-a-half-hour descent through the haze.
Q 28How did the Cassini mission end in September 2017?
It plunged into Saturn's atmosphere
The 'Grand Finale' dives between the rings and planet ended with deliberate destruction, to protect the possibly habitable moons.
Q 29Cassini measured lightning on Saturn to be roughly how much more powerful than Earth's?
About 1,000 times
The tracking began in early 2005.
Q 30What type of craft is NASA's Dragonfly mission to Saturn's largest moon?
A rotorcraft (drone) lander
Selected in 2019, it was planned to launch on a Falcon Heavy in 2028 and arrive in 2034, hopping across the surface to look for signs of prebiotic chemistry.