Exploring the cosmos
Space is closer
than you think.
Space officially begins about 100 km above your head. Discover the science, worlds, and unanswered questions beyond our sky.
Since you arrived, Earth has carried you km around the Sun.
Sunlight takes about 8 min 20 s to reach you.
A field guide to wonder
There’s more out there.
Big ideas. Remarkable worlds.
A new perspective on our place in it all.
3 articles shown
Your interplanetary itinerary
Eight worlds. One star.
Directions from the Sun are approximate · Orbit sizes and planets not to scale
ARTIST’S IMPRESSION · NOT TO SCALE
06 / Gas giant · Ringed world
Saturn.
A world of extraordinary elegance. Saturn’s vast rings are made mostly of water ice, ranging from tiny grains to chunks as large as mountains.
- Mean diameter
- 116,460 km
- Orbital period
- 29.45 Earth years
- From the Sun
- 9.58 AU
- Axial tilt
- 26.7°
Approximate values. Distance is the orbital semimajor axis.
1 AU ≈ 149.6 million km, Earth’s average distance from the Sun.
Through a different lens
Not all light
meets the eye.
The James Webb Space Telescope looks beyond visible light. By observing in infrared, it helps us peer through cosmic dust, study the atmospheres of distant worlds, and investigate light stretched by an expanding universe.
A different way of seeing. A deeper way of understanding.
2.5 million light-years away
The Andromeda Galaxy.
Our nearest large galactic neighbor, and one of the most distant things you can see with the unaided eye. The light reaching you tonight left it about 2.5 million years ago.
A universe for everyone