Facts About Planets

Facts About Planets

Mercury

» Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun.
» It is extremely hot planet.
» The planet has no water on it.
» Mercury planet has no gases like CO₂, N₂, H₂ and O₂ which can act as building blocks of life.
» Mercury planet has no protective blanket like Ozone around it to prevent us from harmful radiations.

Venus

» Venus is the second planet in distance from the Sun. This planet is nearest to the Earth and is also the brightest planet.
» Venus is known as the 'Evening Star' as well as 'Morning Star'.
» Venus is surrounded by a thick cloud cover, hence known as the Veiled Planet' ('veil' means unclear/cover).
» Venus is like the Earth in size and mass, and hence also known as the 'Earth's twin'. It also rotates clockwise like Uranus.
» Venus is the hottest planet (even hotter than Mercury) of our Solar System, due to its veil of cloud.
» Venus has no water on it. There is no sufficient oxygen on the Venus.

The Earth

» Earth is the largest of the inner planets.
» The Earth is 23.500 tilted on its axis and thus makes 66.50° angle.
» It takes 23 hours 56 minutes and 4.091 seconds to rotate on its axis.
» It takes 365 days, 5 hours and 48 minutes to revolve around the Sun.
» Earth is known as the 'watery planet' or the 'blue planet' due to the presence of huge amount of water on it.
» Earth is the only known planet which provides sustenance or life on it. It has a large quantity of oxygen which supports life.

Mars

» Iron-rich red soil and pink sky of Mars give it the name, 'Red Planet'.
» Phobes and Demos are two satellites of Mars.

Jupiter

» Jupiter is the largest planet of the Solar System.
» Jupiter is also known as winter planet as its average temperature is very low (-148° C). Gannymeda, satellite of Jupiter is the largest satellite in the Solar System.

Saturn

» Saturn is the second largest planet in the Solar System.
» Saturn has bright concentric rings which are made up of ice and ice-covered dust particles which revolve around it.
» Titan is the largest satellite of Saturn.

Uranus

» Uranus is about four times the size of the Earth. This planet appears greenish in colour because of methane gas present in its atmosphere.
» Uranus was discovered in 1781 by Sir William Hersiel.
» Uranus is the 7th planet from the Sun.
» Uranus is the first planet to have been discovered by the use of a telescope. Uranus is the third biggest planet of the Solar System.
» Uranus rotates from east to west on its axis, which is opposite to other planets except Venus.
» The axis of Uranus has large inclination so that it appears to be lying down, hence it bears the name 'A Planet on its Side'.

Neptune

» Neptune is the 8th planet of the Solar System.
» The temperature on the surface of Neptune remains low.
» Neptune is very similar to Uranusand can be considered as its twin.
» Neptune is surrounded by methane rings of sub zero temperature.