The planet itself is composed of 96 percent hydrogen, 3 percent helium and trace chemicals make up the remaining 1 percent. The planet is formed in layers. Closest to the surface is helium and ice, followed by liquid hydrogen, then liquid metallic hydrogen and finally, iron and rock at its core, which are believed to have sunk into the center of the planet during its formation.
Saturn's surface is not solid; it has an average specific density of 0.69, which is less dense than water. The atmospheric pressure is so intense that it would crush any object before it reached the surface. It is difficult to delineate where Saturn's atmosphere leaves off and its surface begins. Scientists differentiate Saturn's surface is from its atmosphere where the atmospheric pressure exceeds 1 bar.
Saturn is an oblate spheroid, meaning that it is perceptibly flattened at the poles and bulges at the equator. Its north pole has a strange hexagonal pattern around it made up of high-energy subatomic particles. A glowing aurora is produced when these particles interact with gas molecules. A massive hurricane-like storm covers its south pole. The storm is made up of spiral bands of clouds, thousands of miles across and circulating at high speeds of up to 342 miles per hour, locked in place over the pole. The eye of the storm is approximately 930 miles in diameter and contains massive clouds that tower 19 to 47 miles high.
The atmosphere of Saturn is comprised of 88 percent hydrogen, 11 percent helium and the remaining 1 percent is a mixture of methane, ammonia and ammonia crystals, ethane, ethylene and phosphine. The outer layer, the tropopause, is mostly clouds of ammonia. Closer to the surface is a cloud layer of ammonium hydrosulfide. Closest to the surface is a cloud-layer of water.
Saturn's rings are made up of hundreds of thousands of narrow bands of ice crystal, silica rock and iron oxide particles ranging in size from specks of dust to the size of a small car. These bands are only about 10 km thick. There are gaps between the strands of rings, the two largest being the Cassini division and the Encke division. There are also structures called "spokes" that extend out in a radial direction. It is believed that these spokes are caused by electrostatic repulsion between the ring particles. Some of the rings appear to be braided strands, kept in place by the interaction of gravitational forces from two of the over 600 small moons lying on either side of the strand that orbit the planet. The rings have their own atmosphere, independent of the planet, composed of molecular oxygen gas.