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Eight Planets: Mercury

The document describes the 8 planets in our solar system - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. For each planet, it provides key facts about their discovery, namesake, size, orbit period, rotation period, and some distinguishing physical characteristics. The planets range greatly in size and composition, from the small, rocky inner planets like Earth and Mars to the huge gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn with prominent ring systems.

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SamanthaRamirez
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98 views

Eight Planets: Mercury

The document describes the 8 planets in our solar system - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. For each planet, it provides key facts about their discovery, namesake, size, orbit period, rotation period, and some distinguishing physical characteristics. The planets range greatly in size and composition, from the small, rocky inner planets like Earth and Mars to the huge gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn with prominent ring systems.

Uploaded by

SamanthaRamirez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Eight Planets

Mercury
Mercury is the closest planet to the sun but not the hottest. It has the shortest year and longest day. Its
cratered surface can experience temperatures upwards of 800 degrees Fahrenheit (426.7 degrees
Celsius) because of its proximity to the sun. However, temperatures on the side facing away from the sun
are cold — about -279 F (-173 C). Mercury is only a bit larger than Earth's moon, it is the smallest planet
in the solar system. It has no moons, no rings, and Mercury has no atmosphere to absorb meteor impacts,
so its surface is pockmarked with craters, just like the moon.

 Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye


 Named for: Messenger of the Roman gods
 Diameter: 3,031 miles (4,878 km)
 Orbit: 88 Earth days
 Day: 58.6 Earth days

Venus
The second planet from the sun, Venus is smaller than Earth. It is the hottest planet of the solar system.
Because of its relative proximity to Earth, it is the largest planet seen in the night sky. The cratered surface
is hot with surface temperatures around 900 F (482 C), the product of a runaway greenhouse effect. It is
the thickest of the terrestrial planets, and it consists of sulfuric acid and carbon dioxide. The heat and
pressure make the planet decidedly inhospitable to life. Venus rotates in the wrong direction and it is the
slowest rotating planet. It is the closest planet to earth - In distance and in size

The atmosphere is toxic.. Its size and structure are similar to Earth, Venus' thick, t

 Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye


 Named for: Roman goddess of love and beauty
 Diameter: 7,521 miles (12,104 km)
 Orbit: 225 Earth days
 Day: 241 Earth days

Earth
Earth, the third planet from the sun and the largest terrestrial planet, is the only planet known to host
living beings and the only one known to have liquid water on its surface. Earth is a waterworld, with two-
thirds of the planet covered by ocean. The atmosphere is made of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide, is
crucial to Earth's ability to support life. It has the biggest moon of any planet and it is the only planet
known to support life.

 Diameter: 7,926 miles (12,760 km)


 Orbit: 365.24 days
 Day: 23 hours, 56 minutes

Mars
It is the fourth planet from the sun, Mars, the Red Planet. The red color of the surface comes from iron
oxide or rust in the soil. The topography is characterized by large volcanoes and deep valleys, and Mars
experiences frequent planet-wide wind storms. Some of the surface features of Mars, such as dry river
beds, hint to the possibility that water previously existed on the planet and may still flow under the
surface. The carbon dioxide atmosphere is very thin on Mars, with only 1/100th the atmospheric pressure
of Earth. The planet is colder than Earth, with surface temperatures ranging from -171 to 32 F (-113 to 0 C).
It is the last and coldest of the inner planets. It has two moons.

Mars shares similarities with Earth: It is rocky, has mountains and valleys, and storm systems. It snows on
Mars. And Mars harbors water ice. Scientists think it was once wet and warm, though today it’s cold and
desert-like.

 Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye


 Named for: Roman god of war
 Diameter: 4,217 miles (6,787 km)
 Orbit: 687 Earth days
 Day: Just more than one Earth day (24 hours, 37 minutes)

Jupiter
It is the fifth planet from the sun and it is the largest planet in our solar system and the first of the gas giant
planets. Its characteristic colored cloud patterns are caused by enormous storms in its atmosphere,
which consists of hydrogen, helium, methane ammonia and water ice. The largest and most distinctive
of the storms, the Great Red Spot, is larger than Earth. It has 79 moons and it has largest moon
(Ganymede) which is bigger then Mercury. It has the shortest day of any planet.

 Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye


 Named for: Ruler of the Roman gods
 Diameter: 86,881 miles (139,822 km)
 Orbit: 11.9 Earth years
 Day: 9.8 Earth hours

Saturn
Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun and the second largest planet, is also a gas giant, and it's most
impressive feature is its ring system. The rings orbit the planet in a thin band about a mile thick. The radius
of Saturn is about 9.5 times that of Earth, and it has 62 moons. The interior of Saturn is made of hydrogen
and helium. When Galileo Galilei first studied Saturn in the early 1600s, he thought it was an object with three
parts but those were rings. The rings are made of ice and rock.

 Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked eye


 Named for: Roman god of agriculture
 Diameter: 74,900 miles (120,500 km)
 Orbit: 29.5 Earth years
 Day: About 10.5 Earth hours

Uranus
It is the seventh planet in the solar system and it is the second coldest planet. The ice giant Uranus spins
on an axis parallel to its orbit. This cold planet is four times the size of Earth and is made of a large
atmosphere of methane with a dense core of frozen methane. Uranus has a faint ring system and 27
moons in its orbit. It was the first planet to be discovered (e.g. was not known to early man). It has at
least 13 rings all of which are darker than Saturn's. It has Only ever visited once (1986).

Uranus is an oddball. It’s the only giant planet whose equator is nearly at right angles to its orbit — it
basically orbits on its side. Uranus is about the same size as Neptune. Methane in the atmosphere gives
Uranus its blue-green tint.

 Discovery: 1781
 Named for: Personification of heaven in ancient myth
 Diameter: 31,763 miles (51,120 km)
 Orbit: 84 Earth years
 Day: 18 Earth hours

Neptune
It is the eighth and final planet of the Solar System. Neptune is known for strong winds — sometimes
faster than the speed of sound. Neptune's winds travel at more than 1,500 mph, and are the fastest
planetary winds in the solar system.

The blue planet Neptune is the farthest one from the sun and it has the coldest temperatures (-220
degrees C). The atmosphere is mostly methane, which gives the planet its blue color. The cold interior of
the planet is mainly methane ice. Like all the outer planets, Neptune, has a diameter roughly four times
that of Earth. It has 13 moons and a faint ring system orbit the planet.

The planet is more than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth. It has a rocky core. Neptune is about 17 times
as massive as Earth.

 Discovery: 1846
 Named for: Roman god of water
 Diameter: 30,775 miles (49,530 km)
 Orbit: 165 Earth years
 Day: 19 Earth hours

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