By car to Saturn: about 1,600 years
By car (100 km/h) it would take about 1,600 years to get to Saturn – at the average distance of 1.43 billion km, non-stop and in a straight line.
Because the distance keeps changing, the travel time ranges from 1,400 years (closest) to 1,900 years (farthest).
For comparison
Had you set off around AD 400 – shortly after the Roman Empire was split into West and East in 395 – you would be arriving about now.
How it is calculated
- Closest distance
- 1.2 billion km
- Average distance
- 1.43 billion km
- Farthest distance
- 1.66 billion km
- Speed
- 100 km/h
- Formula
- Travel time = distance ÷ speed
- Result
- 1.43 billion km ÷ 100 km/h ≈ 1,600 years
Assumption: constant speed in a straight line, with no stops, acceleration or braking. Real spacecraft fly curved paths and use the gravity of planets.
Good to know: Saturn
Saturn is the ringed planet: its main rings of ice and rock span about 270,000 km but are mostly only ten metres to a kilometre thick. It is about 9.5 times as far from the Sun as Earth, and sunlight needs about 80 minutes to reach it.
→ Fact sheet: SaturnSaturn: travel time by every vehicle
| Vehicle | Speed | Travel time | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Car | 100 km/h | 1,600 years | 1,400 years – 1,900 years |
| Airplane | 900 km/h | 180 years | 150 years – 210 years |
| Rocket | 61,000 km/h | 2.7 years | 2.2 years – 3.1 years |
| Speed of light | 1,079,252,849 km/h | 79 minutes | 67 minutes – 1.5 hours |