What are trestrial planets?

Answer 1

Terrestrial planets are: the Earth or a planet that resembles the Earth in its physical characteristics. They are mostly composed of silicate rocks.

Terrestrial planets are substantially different from gas giants, which might not have solid surfaces and are composed mostly of some combination of hydrogen, helium, and water existing in various physical states.

There are four terrestrial planets in our Solar System. Mercury is the closest to the Sun. Next is Venus and then Earth. The furthest out terrestrial planet is Mars and beyond Mars are the 4 "jovian planets".

Our Solar System also contains at least one dwarf terrestrial planet. Called Ceres it is found in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Other terrestrial planets have been found orbiting other stars, but they are massive, much bigger than Earth.

Mercury orbits the Sun in just 88 days (in a way which cannot be fully explained without relativity). It is the smallest planet in the solar system, smaller even than one of Jupiter's moons but heavier because of its large iron core (although it is only 5% the mass of the Earth). The temperature varies from 420 degrees Celsius (790 degrees Fahrenheit) during the day to -220 degrees Celsius (-365 degrees Fahrenheit) at night.

Mercury has yet to be extensively mapped and is hard to see from Earth because it always appears near the Sun, and so is lost in the glare except just before sunrise, just before sunset and during eclipses. Just two space probes have visited Mercury: Mariner 10 in the 1970s and the current MESSENGER probe.

Venus's days are longer than it's years. Venus is only slightly smaller than the Earth but has a much denser atmosphere. Thick clouds of sulphuric acid cover the whole planet. Wherever you go on Venus the weather is always the same, from pole to equator, whatever time of day or year.

The weather is: Very overcast (you cannot see the Sun from the surface), Drizzle (there is a constant light rain of sulphuric acid) and lightning. Temperature is a balmy 460 degrees Celsius (860 degrees Fahrenheit). The wind is slow but strong because the air is so dense.

Neither Venus or Mercury have moons.

The Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the largest terrestrial planet. It is notable for having the largest moon relative to it's own size of any other planet. It is the only planet with a large amount of liquid on the surface and has the strongest magnetic field and the greatest axial tilt of any terrestrial planet.

The planet Mars is only about 11% the mass of Earth. (It's surface gravity is actually slightly less than Mercury's.) It has a very thin atmosphere and is quite cold. It has valleys, ice-caps and mountains like Earth and is the location of the largest Volcano in the Solar System (which is now considered extinct however).

Days on Mars are about 24 and a half hours long but its years are almost twice as long as the Earth's. It has 2 very small moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are probably captured asteroids. Deimos is the furthest out and appears as a small star rising in the East and remains in the sky for almost 3 days before setting in the West. Phobos on the other hand rises in the West, shoots across the sky in just 5 and a half hours and sets in the East.

Answer 2

"Terrestrial" planets are the inner most (to the sun) and rocky planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are terrestrial planets, and the last four planets are gas giants.

The word "terrestrial" comes from the Latin "terra" meaning "earth" or "dirt".

Answer 3

The inner rocky planets are; Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. They are also known as the terrestrial planets