Saturn: Atmosphere

Wind-blown clouds and haze high in Saturn's atmosphere are captured in a movie made from images taken by the Cassini narrow angle camera between Feb. 15 and Feb. 19, 2004. The NASA image is catalogued as PIA05384

Atmospheric Composition

Saturn's atmosphere is somewhat complex. The following table gives its composition above the cloudtops to give a comparison to similar tables for the inner planets. The values given below are a guide only because the quantities are variable.

[Some browsers are unable to interpret superscript characters and for clarification some parameters are repeated in square brackets]

Name Symbol Percentage volume
Hydrogen H2 94
Helium He 6
Methane CH4 8 x 10-4 [8E-4]
Ammonia NH3 2 x 10-4 [2E-4]
Ethane C2H6 5 x 10-6 [5E-6]
Deuterated Hydrogen HD 5 x 10-5 [5E-5]
Phosphine PH3 1 x 10-6 [1E-6]
Acetylene C2H2 2 x 10-8 [2E-8]
Methylacetylene CH3C2H 1 x 10-10 [1E-10]
Propane C3H8 1 x 10-10 [1E-10]
Deuterated Methane CH3D 2 x 10-5 [2E-5]

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