Mercury is the closest planet to

the Sun and due to its proximity

it is not easily seen except
during twilight. For every two
orbits of the Sun, Mercury
completes three rotations about
its axis and up until 1965 it was
thought that the same side of
Mercury constantly faced the
Sun. Thirteen times a century
Mercury can be observed from
the Earth passing across the
face of the Sun in an event
called a transit, the next will
occur on the 9th May 2016.
A year on Mercury is just 88
days long:

One solar day (the time from

noon to
noon on the planets
surface) on Mercury lasts the
equivalent of 176 Earth days while
the sidereal day (the
time for 1
rotation in relation to a fixed
point)
lasts 59 Earth days. Mercury is nearly
tidally locked to the Sun and over
time this has slowed the
rotation of the
planet to almost
match its orbit around
the Sun.
Mercury also has the highest
orbital
eccentricity of all the planets
with
its distance from the Sun ranging
from 46 to 70 million km.

Mercury is the smallest planet in

the Solar System:

One of five planets visible with

the
naked eye a, Mercury is just
4,879 Kilometres across its equator,
compared with 12,742
Kilometres for
the Earth.

Venus is the second planet from

the Sun and is the second
brightest object in the night sky
after the Moon. Named after the
Roman goddess of love and
beauty, Venus is the second
largest terrestrial planet and is
sometimes referred to as the
Earths sister planet due the
their similar size and mass. The
surface of the planet is
obscured by an opaque layer of
clouds made up of sulfuric acid.

Venus is often called the Earths

sister planet:
The Earth and Venus are very
similar in size with only a 638
km difference in diameter,
Venus having 81.5% of the
Earths mass. Both also have a
central core, a molten mantle
and a crust.

Venus is the hottest planet in

our solar system:
The average surface
temperature is 462 C, and
because Venus does not tilt on
its axis, there is no seasonal
variation. The dense
atmosphere of around 96.5
percent carbon dioxide traps
heat and causes a greenhouse
effect.

Earth is the third planet from the

Sun and is the largest of the
terrestrial planets. The Earth is the
only planet in our solar system not
to be named after a Greek or
Roman deity. The Earth was
formed approximately 4.54 billion
years ago and is the only known
planet to support life.

Of all the planets in our solar

system, the Earth has the greatest
density:
This varies according to the part of
the planet; for example, the
metallic core is denser than the
crust. The average density of the
Earth is approximately 5.52 grams
per cubic centimetre.

Mars is the fourth planet from the

Sun. Named after the Roman god
of war, and often described as the

Mars and Earth have

approximately the same landmass:
Even though Mars has only 15% of
the Earths volume and just over
10% of the Earths mass, around
two thirds of the Earths surface is
covered in water. Martian surface
gravity is only 37% of the Earths
(meaning you could leap nearly
three times higher on Mars).

There is only one natural satellite

of the planet Earth:
As a percentage of the size of the
body it orbits, the Moon is the
largest satellite of any planet in
our solar system. In real terms,
however, it is only the fifth largest
natural satellite.

Red Planet due to its reddish

appearance. Mars is a terrestrial
planet with a thin atmosphere
composed primarily of carbon
dioxide.

Mars is home to the tallest

mountain in the solar system.
Olympus Mons, a shield volcano, is
21km high and 600km in diameter.
Despite having formed over
billions of years, evidence from
volcanic lava flows is so recent
many scientists believe it could
still be active.

The planet Jupiter is the fifth

planet out from the Sun, and is two
and a half times more massive
than all the other planets in the
solar system combined. It is made
primarily of gases and is therefore
known as a gas giant.

telescope. Uranus is tipped over on

its side with an axial tilt of 98
degrees. It is often described as
rolling around the Sun on its
side.

Jupiter is the fourth brightest

object in the solar system:

Like the other gas giants, it has a

hydrogen upper layer, which has
helium mixed in. Below that is an
icy mantle, which surrounds a
rock and ice core. The upper
atmosphere is made of water,
ammonia and the methane ice
crystals that give the planet its
pale blue color.

Only the Sun, Moon and Venus are

brighter. It is one of five planets
visible to the naked eye from
Earth.

The Great Red Spot is a huge

storm on Jupiter:
It has raged for at least 350 years.
It is so large that three Earths
could fit inside it.

Jupiters moon Ganymede is the

largest moon in the solar system:
Jupiters moons are sometimes
called the Jovian satellites, the
largest of these are Ganymeade,
Callisto Io and Europa. Ganymeade
measures 5,268 km across,
making it larger than the planet
Mercury.

Uranus is the seventh planet from

the Sun. Its not visible to the
naked eye, and became the first
planet discovered with the use of a

Uranus is often referred to as an

ice giant planet:

Uranus hits the coldest

temperatures of any planet:
With minimum atmospheric
temperature of -224C Uranus is
nearly coldest planet in the solar
system. While Neptune doesnt get
as cold as Uranus it is on average
colder. The upper atmosphere of
Uranus is covered by a methane
haze which hides the storms that
take place in the cloud decks.

Neptune is the eighth planet from

the Sun and is the most distant
planet from the Sun. This gas giant
planet may have formed much
closer to the Sun in early solar
system history before migrating to
its present position.
The atmosphere of Neptune is
made of hydrogen and helium,
with some methane:
The methane absorbs red light,
which makes the planet appear a
lovely blue. High, thin clouds drift
in the upper atmosphere.

Neptune has 14 moons:

The most interesting moon is
Triton, a frozen world that is
spewing nitrogen ice and dust
particles out from below its
surface. It was likely captured by
the gravitational pull of Neptune. It
is probably the coldest world in the
solar system.

Saturn is the sixth planet from the

Sun and the most distant that can
be seen with the naked eye. It is
best known for its fabulous ring
system that was discovered in

1610 by the astronomer Galileo

Galilei.

Saturn can be seen with the naked

eye:
It is the fifth brightest object in the
solar system and is also easily
studied through binoculars or a
small telescope.

Saturn has the most extensive

rings in the solar system:
The Saturnian rings are made
mostly of chunks of ice and small
amounts of carbonaceous dust.
The rings stretch out more than
120,700 km from the planet, but
are are amazingly thin: only about
20 meters thick.

Discovered in 1930, Pluto is the

second closest dwarf planet to the
Sun and was at one point classified
as the ninth planet. Pluto is the
largest dwarf planet but only the
second most massive, with Eris
being the most massive.

The Sun or Sol, is the star at the

centre of our solar system and is
responsible for the Earths climate
and weather. The Sun is an almost
perfect sphere with a difference of
just 10km in diameter between the
poles and the equator. The
average radius of the Sun is
695,508 km (109.2 x that of the
Earth) of which 2025% is the
core.

The Sun contains 99.86% of the

mass in the Solar System:

Pluto was reclassified from a

planet to a dwarf planet in 2006:
This is when the IAU formalised the
definition of a planet as A planet
is a celestial body that (a) is in
orbit around the Sun, (b) has
sufficient mass for its self-gravity
to overcome rigid body forces so
that it assumes a hydrostatic
equilibrium (nearly round) shape,
and (c) has cleared the
neighbourhood around its orbit.

The mass of the Sun is

approximately 330,000 times
greater than that of Earth. It is
almost three quarters Hydrogen,
whilst most of the remaining mass
is Helium.

Pluto has five known moons:

The moons are Charon (discovered
in 1978,), Hydra and Nix (both
discovered in 2005), Kerberos
originally P4 (discovered 2011)
and Styx originally P5 (discovered
2012) official designations S/2011
(134340) 1 and S/2012 (134340)
1.

One million Earths could fit inside

the Sun:
If a hollow Sun was filled up with
spherical Earths then around
960,000 would fit inside. On the
other hand if these Earths were
squished inside with no wasted
space then around 1,300,000
would fit inside. The Suns surface
area is 11,990 times that of the
Earths.