PLANETS

OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

The solar system is made up of 9 planets

Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto

Mercury is the planet closest to the sun.

*A year on Mercury is only 88 days long, but a full day takes 176 days, even though the planet takes 58 days to rotate on its axis. *Mercury can only be seen just after the sun rises and just after the sun sets. *Although Mercury is closest to the sun, it is not the hottest planet.

*Venus & Mercury are the only two planets in the Solar System that do not have moons orbiting them. *Venus is the only planet in the Solar System to turn clockwise. All other planets turn counterclockwise. It rotates extremely slow.

*After the Sun and the Moon, Venus is the brightest object in the night-sky from Earth.

*Earth is where we live! *Earth is the only planet to have water in three states of matter: solid (ice), liquid (sea, rain, etc.) & as a gas (clouds). *The length of time it takes for Earth to orbit the sun is 365 and a quarter days. To make up this extra quarter which isn't counted at the end of a year, we have an extra day every four years on February 29th.

*The largest volcano in the solar system is found on Mars. It is called Olympus Mons. *Of all the planets in the Solar System, Mars is the one that people believe is most likely to contain or to have contained life. *The Sun appears to be half the size on Mars as it does on Earth.

*Jupiter has a thin set of rings that are hardly visible, even with a telescope, from Earth. *Jupiter takes only 9 hours and 55 minutes to spin on its axis. *Jupiter's moon, Ganymede ,is the biggest in the Solar System. *Jupiter's famous Red Spot is a storm the size of Earth that has raged for hundreds of years.

*Saturn is the second largest planet in the Solar System. *Saturn's moon, Titan, is the only moon in the Solar System to possess an atmosphere. *A day on Saturn is about 10 and a half hours but a year on Saturn would take almost 30 Earth years.

*Uranus is the 7th planet from the sun. *Uranus' pale blue color is caused by the methane in its atmosphere which filters out red light. *Uranus has 27 moons (discovered so far) orbiting the planet. *Uranus was the first planet in the Solar System to be discovered.

*Neptune has 13 known moons. *Neptune is the 8th planet from the sun. *Neptune's moon, Triton, is slowly getting closer to Neptune. Eventually, it will get so close that it may get torn apart by Neptune's gravity and possible form rings more spectacular than Saturn's.

*Pluto is the planet with the lowest pull of gravity in the Solar System. This will explain why its moon, Charon, orbits the planet so closely. *Pluto was the only planet to have been discovered in the Twentieth Century, even though it is no longer recognized as a planet. *A day on Pluto lasts for 6 days and 9 hours.

Sources:
http://www.bobthealien.co.uk/index.html http://www.planetsofthesolarsystem.net/planets.html