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The Eight Planets
The Eight Planets of the Solar System.
Darren Auberry
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☆☆☆☆☆The smallest planet in our solar system and is located closest to the sun. It is a rocky planet with a solid surface covered in craters. It has no atmosphere and no moons. A day on Mercury lasts 59 Earth days, and a year lasts 88 Earth days.
The second planet from the sun and is often called Earth’s twin. It is a rocky planet with a thick atmosphere that traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect, making it the hottest planet in our solar system. Its surface temperature is hot enough to melt lead. Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory.
The third planet from the sun and the only known planet to support life. It is a rocky planet with a diameter of about 8,000 miles and a mass of 5.97 x 10^24 kg. It has one natural satellite, the Moon, which is the fifth largest moon in the solar system.
The fourth planet from the sun and is often referred to as the “Red Planet” due to its reddish appearance. It is a rocky planet with a thin atmosphere composed mostly of carbon dioxide. Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos. NASA’s Mars Exploration Program aims to understand the formation and early evolution of Mars, the history of geological processes that have shaped Mars through time, the potential for Mars to have hosted life, and the future exploration of Mars by humans.
The fifth planet from the sun and the largest planet in our solar system. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the solar system combined. Jupiter has a faint planetary ring system and 79 known moons, including the four largest moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
The sixth planet from the sun and the second-largest planet in our solar system. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine-and-a-half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive. Saturn has a pale yellow hue due to ammonia crystals in its upper atmosphere.
The seventh planet from the sun and is an ice giant. It is mostly made of flowing icy materials above a solid core. Its atmosphere contains hydrogen, helium, and methane. Uranus has a complex layered cloud structure and has the lowest minimum temperature of 49 K out of all Solar System’s planets. It has a marked axial tilt of 97.8° with a retrograde rotation rate of 17 hours.
The eighth planet from the sun and the farthest major planet in our solar system. It is a gas giant with a diameter of about 30,000 miles and is 17 times the mass of Earth. It has a complex layered cloud structure and is known for its powerful winds. Neptune has 14 known moons and is named after the Roman god of the sea.
