Astronomers are saying the rate of Saturn's rotation that's been quoted in textbooks apparently needs to be rewritten.

They concluded that a Saturnian day, which equals a period of one rotation, is actually six minutes shorter than the estimate in textbooks.

Six minutes may not seem like such a big deal but this will cause confusion among scientists and change how they think about how the winds on Saturn move, according to planetary scientist Ravit Helled from Tel Aviv University in Israel.

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Scientists can't pinpoint the exact rotation period of Saturn, however. When the Voyager spacecraft flew past the gas planet during the 1980s, it recorded 10 hours and 39 minutes, but the Cassini spacecraft that orbited the planet in 2004 measured 10 hours and 47 minutes.

Helled says ever since different numbers were measured by different NASA probes, Saturn's exact rotation period hasn't been determined. In the last few years, however, there have been theoretical attempts to pinpoint an answer.

Helled's team used Saturn's magnetic field to extract the spin rate of the gas planet. The result they got was 10 hours 32 minutes and 45 seconds, which is six minutes faster than Voyager's estimate.

Planetary scientists believe those six minutes make a big difference since it means that Saturn's equator from the level of its atmosphere is now spinning 250 miles faster than what Voyager predicted. This will affect wind speeds in the atmosphere.

The Voyager estimate suggests most winds are blowing in just one direction, but the new result is evidence in itself that around half the winds are blowing west and the other half is blowing east, which could make more sense, says Andrew Ingersoll from the California Institute of Technology.

This new measurement can certainly help scientists gain more insights about Saturn's atmosphere and winds and even determine how heavy elements such as water and rocks are formed in its interior just by figuring out the planet's rotation.

This study can be read in the journal, Nature.

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