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That should be Mercury. It, being the closest planet to the sun has the least distance to travel to complete one revolution. In addition, the sun's gravity having more effect on Mercury should also make it move in it's orbit faster. {Note this is a fallacy, the Sun has as much effect on Neptune as it does on Mercury, gravitation's pull is based on mass and distance: the Sun's mass doesn't change from planet to planet. Just because it is closer doesn't mean it gets more effect. Mercury is tiny AND very close to the Sun - this makes the gravitational force able to move it very fast** But it is affected just as much as any other planet.}

The closer the orbit to the Sun, the smaller the linear distance it travels:

Mercury's official "year" ~ 89 days (~ 3 months)

Venus 224 days

Earth 364 days

Mars 686 days (about 2 years)

Jupiter 11 years

Saturn 30 years

Uranus 84 years

Neptune 164 years **Were one of the larger planets closer to the Sun (in say Venus' orbit), it's likely it would not orbit so quickly and would take longer to have a year.

Force of Gravitation F = G x mass1 x mass2/radius2 G = gravitational constant, r = radius of the distance from the 2 bodies

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Mercury being the closest planet has the strongest gravitational force per unit mass. By Kepler's 3rd law a planet's orbital speed is inversely proportional to the square root of the distance.

The orbital period and speed are independent of a planet's mass and are determined only by the distance from the Sun.

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10y ago

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