Below is a brief overview of the eight primary planets in Earth

our solar system, in order from the inner solar system

outward:
Mercury
The closest planet to the sun, Mercury is only a bit larger
than Earth’s moon. Its day side is scorched by the sun and
can reach 840 degrees F (450 degrees C), but on the night
side, temperatures drop to hundreds of degrees below
freezing. Mercury has virtually no atmosphere to absorb
meteor impacts, so its surface is pockmarked with craters,
just like the moon.
The third (3rd) planet from the sun, Earth is a waterworld,
with two-thirds of the planet covered by ocean. It’s the
only world known to harbor life. Earth’s atmosphere is
rich in life-sustaining nitrogen and oxygen. Earth’s surface
rotates about its axis at 1,532 feet per second — slightly
more than 1,000 mph — at the equator. The planet zips
around the sun at more than 18 miles per second.
Diameter: 7,926 miles (12,760 km)
Orbit: 365.24 days
Day: 23 hours, 56 minutes

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)

E ver since the discovery of Pluto in 1930, kids grew up

learning about the nine planets of our solar system.
That all changed starting in the late 1990s, when astrono-
the terrestrial planets, and because they are gaseous in
nature rather than having rocky surfaces (though some or
all of them may have solid cores, astronomers say). These
Orbit: 88 Earth days

Day: 58.6 Earth days

mers began to argue about whether Pluto was a planet.
In a highly controversial decision, the International Astro-
nomical Union ultimately decided in 2006 to call Pluto a
“dwarf planet,” reducing the list of “real planets” in our
solar system to eight. But many kids (and adults) cling to
the notion of 9 planets.
Regardless of your view, here’s the order of the 8 larger
planets, starting nearest the sun and working outward
through the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
If you insist on including Pluto, then that 9th world would
come after Neptune on the list; Pluto is truly way out
there, and on a wildly tilted, elliptical orbit (two of the
several reasons it got demoted). Interestingly, Pluto used
to be the 8th planet, actually. More on that below.
Terrestrial Planets
The inner four worlds are called “terrestrial planets,” be-
cause, like Earth, their surfaces are all rocky. Pluto, too, has
a solid surface (and a very frozen one) but has never been
grouped with the four terrestrials.
Jovian Planets
The four large outer worlds — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
and Neptune — are known as the “Jovian planets” (mean-
ing “Jupiter-like”) because they are all huge compared to
worlds are also frequently called the gas giants, but that’s
not a great way to describe them, some astronomers say,
because Uranus and Neptune are more ice than gas. All
four contain mostly hydrogen and helium.
Dwarf Planets
The new IAU definition of a full-fledged planet goes like
this: A body that circles the sunwithout being some other
object’s satellite, is large enough to be rounded by its own
gravity (but not so big that it begins to undergo nuclear
fusion, like a star) and has “cleared its neighborhood” of
most other orbiting bodies. Yeah, that’s a mouthful.
The problem for Pluto, besides its small size and offbeat
orbit, is that it shares its space with lots of other objects
in the Kuiper Belt, beyond Neptune. Still, the demotion of
Pluto remains controversial.
The new IAU planet definition puts other small, round
worlds in the dwarf planetcategory, including the Kupier
Belt objects Eris, Haumea, Makemake.
Also now a dwarf planet is Ceres, a round object in the
Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres was actu-
ally considered a planet when discovered in 1801 and then
later deemed to be an asteroid. Some astronomers like to
consider Ceres as a 10th planet (not to be confused with
Nibiru or Planet X), but that line of thinking opens up the
possibility of there being 13 planets, with more bound to
be discovered.
Venus
The second (2nd) planet from the sun, Venus is terribly
hot. The atmosphere is toxic. The pressure at the surface
would crush and kill you. Scientists describe Venus’ situ-
ation as a runaway greenhouse effect. Its size and struc-
ture are similar to Earth, Venus’ thick, toxic atmosphere
traps heat in a runaway “greenhouse effect.” Oddly, Venus
spins slowly in the opposite direction of most planets. The
Greeks believed Venus was two different objects — one in
the morning sky and another in the evening. Because it is
often brighter than any other object in the sky — except
for the sun and moon — Venus has generated many UFO
reports.
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

Mars
The fourth (4th) planet from the sun, is a cold, dusty place.
The dust, an iron oxide, gives the planet its reddish cast.
Mars shares similarities with Earth: It is rocky, has moun-
tains and valleys, and storm systems ranging from localized
tornado-like dust devils to planet-engulfing dust storms.
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. Its atmosphere is too thin for liquid water to
exist on the surface for any length of time. Scientists think
ancient Mars would have had the conditions to support
life, and there is hope that signs of past life — possibly
even present biology — may exist on the Red Planet.
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
The fifth (5th) planet from the sun, Jupiter is huge and
is the most massive planet in our solar system. It’s a
mostly gaseous world, mostly hydrogen and helium.
Its swirling clouds are colorful due to different types
of trace gases. A big feature is the Great Red Spot, a
giant storm which has raged for hundreds of years. Jupiter
has a strong magnetic field, and with dozens of moons, it
looks a bit like a miniature solar system.
Discovery: Known to the ancients and visible to the naked
eye
Named for: Ruler of the Roman gods
Diameter: 88,730 miles (428,400
km)
Orbit: 11.9 Earth years
Day: 9.8 Earth hours
Saturn
The sixth (6th) planet from the sun is known most for its
rings. When Galileo Galilei first studied Saturn in the early
1600s, he thought it was an object with three parts. Not
knowing he was seeing a planet with rings, the stumped
astronomer entered a small drawing — a symbol with one
large circle and two smaller ones — in his notebook, as a
noun in a sentence describing his discovery. More than 40
years later, Christiaan Huygens proposed that they were
rings. The rings are made of ice and rock. Scientists are not
yet sure how they formed. The gaseous planet is mostly
hydrogen and helium. It has numerous moons.
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
Pluto (Dwarf Planet)
The seventh (7th) planet from the sun, Uranus is an
oddball. It’s the only giant planet whose equator is nearly The ninth (9th) planet from the sun … well … Pluto is un-
at right angles to its orbit — it basically orbits on its side. like other planets in many respects. It is smaller than our
Astronomers think the planet collided with some other moon. Its orbit carries inside the orbit of Neptune and the
planet-sized object long ago, causing the tilt. The tilt causes way out beyond that orbit. From 1979 until early 1999,
extreme seasons that last 20+ years, and the sun beats Pluto had actually been the eighth planet from the sun.
down on one pole or the other for 84 Earth-years. Uranus Then, on Feb. 11, 1999, it crossed Neptune’s path and once
is about the same size as Neptune. Methane in the atmo- again became the solar system’s most distant planet —
sphere gives Uranus its blue-green tint. It has numerous until it was demoted to dwarf planet status. Pluto will stay
moons and faint rings. beyond Neptune for 228 years. Pluto’s orbit is tilted to the
main plane of the solar system — where the other planets
Discovery: 1781 by William Herschel (was thought previ- orbit — by 17.1 degrees. It’s a cold, rocky world with only a
ously to be a star) very ephemeral atmosphere.
Named for: Personification of Discovery: 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh
heaven in ancient myth
Named for: Roman god of the underworld, Hades
Diameter: 31,763 miles (51,120 km)
Diameter: 1,430 miles (2,301 kilometers)
Orbit: 84 Earth years
Orbit: 248 Earth years
Day: 18 Earth hours
Day: 6.4 Earth days
Neptune
The eighth (8th) planet from the
sun, Neptune is known for strong
winds — sometimes faster than — Robert Roy Britt
the speed of sound. Neptune is far out and cold. The
planet is more than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth. http://www.space.com/16080-solar-system-planets.html
It has a rocky core. Neptune was the first planet to be
predicted to exist by using math, before it was detected.
Irregularities in the orbit of Uranus led French astronomer
Alexis Bouvard to suggest some other might be exerting a
gravitational tug. German astronomer Johann Galle used
calculations to help find Neptune in a telescope. 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