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Table of Contents | Enchanted Learning All About Astronomy |
Site Index |
Our Solar System | Stars | Glossary | Printables, Worksheets, and Activities | ||||||
The Sun | The Planets | The Moon | Asteroids | Kuiper Belt | Comets | Meteors | Astronomers |
Your weight on the Planets | The Planets | Your age on the Planets |
The eight planets that orbit the sun are (in order from the sun): Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Another large body is Pluto, now classified as a dwarf planet or plutoid. A belt of asteroids (minor planets made of rock and metal) lies between Mars and Jupiter. These objects all orbit the sun in roughly circular orbits that lie in the same plane, the ecliptic (Pluto is an exception; it has an elliptical orbit tilted over 17° from the ecliptic).
Easy ways to remember the order of the planets (plus Pluto) are the mnemonics: "My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas" and "My Very Easy Method Just Simplifies Us Naming Planets" The first letter of each of these words represents a planet - in the correct order.
Our solar system consists of the sun, eight planets, moons, many dwarf planets (or plutoids), an asteroid belt, comets, meteors, and others. The sun is the center of our solar system; the planets, their moons, a belt of asteroids, comets, and other rocks and gas orbit the sun.
Planet (or Dwarf Planet) | Distance from the Sun (Astronomical Units miles km) |
Period of Revolution Around the Sun (1 planetary year) |
Period of Rotation (1 planetary day) |
Mass (kg) |
Diameter (miles km) |
Apparent size from Earth |
Temperature (K Range or Average) |
Number of Moons |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mercury | 0.39 AU, 36 million miles 57.9 million km |
87.96 Earth days | 58.7 Earth days | 3.3 x 1023 | 3,031 miles 4,878 km |
5-13 arc seconds | 100-700 K mean=452 K |
0 |
Venus | 0.723 AU 67.2 million miles 108.2 million km |
224.68 Earth days | 243 Earth days | 4.87 x 1024 | 7,521 miles 12,104 km |
10-64 arc seconds | 726 K | 0 |
Earth | 1 AU 93 million miles 149.6 million km |
365.26 days | 24 hours | 5.98 x 1024 | 7,926 miles 12,756 km |
Not Applicable | 260-310 K | 1 |
Mars | 1.524 AU 141.6 million miles 227.9 million km |
686.98 Earth days | 24.6 Earth hours =1.026 Earth days |
6.42 x 1023 | 4,222 miles 6,787 km |
4-25 arc seconds | 150-310 K | 2 |
Jupiter | 5.203 AU 483.6 million miles 778.3 million km |
11.862 Earth years | 9.84 Earth hours | 1.90 x 1027 | 88,729 miles 142,796 km |
31-48 arc seconds | 120 K (cloud tops) |
67 (18 named plus many smaller ones) |
Saturn | 9.539 AU 886.7 million miles 1,427.0 million km |
29.456 Earth years | 10.2 Earth hours | 5.69 x 1026 | 74,600 miles 120,660 km |
15-21 arc seconds excluding rings |
88 K | 62 (30 unnamed) |
Uranus | 19.18 AU 1,784.0 million miles 2,871.0 million km |
84.07 Earth years | 17.9 Earth hours | 8.68 x 1025 | 32,600 miles 51,118 km |
3-4 arc seconds | 59 K | 27 (6 unnamed) |
Neptune | 30.06 AU 2,794.4 million miles 4,497.1 million km |
164.81 Earth years | 19.1 Earth hours | 1.02 x 1026 | 30,200 miles 48,600 km |
2.5 arc seconds | 48 K | 13 |
Pluto (a dwarf planet) | 39.53 AU 3,674.5 million miles 5,913 million km |
247.7 years | 6.39 Earth days | 1.29 x 1022 | 1,413 miles 2,274 km |
0.04 arc seconds | 37 K | 4 |
Planet (or Dwarf Planet) | Distance from the Sun (Astronomical Units miles km) |
Period of Revolution Around the Sun (1 planetary year) |
Period of Rotation (1 planetary day) |
Mass (kg) |
Diameter (miles km) |
Apparent size from Earth |
Temperature (K Range or Average) |
Number of Moons |
Another Planet?
In 2005, a large object beyond Pluto was observed in the Kuiper belt.
A few astronomers think that there might be another planet or companion star orbiting the Sun far beyond the orbit of Pluto. This distant planet/companion star may or may not exist. The hypothesized origin of this hypothetical object is that a celestial object, perhaps a hard-to-detect cool, brown dwarf star (called Nemesis), was captured by the Sun's gravitational field. This planet is hypothesized to exist because of the unexplained clumping of some long-period comet's orbits. The orbits of these far-reaching comets seem to be affected by the gravitational pull of a distant, Sun-orbiting object.
Planet Activities and Quizzes
Planet Coloring pages
An interactive puzzle on the Solar System.
Find It!, a quiz on the planets.
A fill-in-the-blank (cloze) activity on the Solar System - or go to the answers.
Solar System calendar to print out and color.
How to write a report on a planet - plus a rubric.
Astronomy: K-3 Theme Page Activities, quizzes, books to print, and printouts. |
The Planets A Book With Tabs An activity book on the Solar System to print for fluent readers. The book contains information, pictures, and questions to answer. |
The Solar System Book A simple printable coloring book about the Solar System to print (for early readers). Pages on the Solar System, the sun, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. |
Solar System Coloring Book Color and learn about our Solar System, the Sun, the planets, asteroids, comets, and our moon. |
Solar System Diagram Label the Sun and planets. Answers |
Earth's Atmosphere Label the atmospheric layers of the Earth. Answers |
Earth Diagram Label the inside of the Earth. Answers |
Celsius Bar Graph Questions #2: Printable Worksheet A printable activity worksheet in which the student reads a bar graph of the average temperatures of the planets to answer questions, for example, "On average, is it warmer on Jupiter or Mars?" Or go to the answers. Go to a pdf version of the worksheet. |
Moon Phases Diagram Label the phases of the waxing and waning moon. Answers |
Lunar Eclipse Diagram Label the lunar eclipse. Answers |
Planet-Sun Orbital Diagram Label the aphelion (farthest point in orbit) and perihelion (closest point in orbit) of a planet in orbit. Answers |
Put 10 Planet Words in Alphabetical Order - Worksheet Put 10 planet words in alphabetical order. The words are: Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, moon, Neptune, Pluto, Saturn, Uranus, Venus. Go to the answers. |
The Planets in English A Label Me! Printout Label the Solar System in English. Answers |
The Planets in French A Label Me! Printout Label the Solar System in French. Answers |
The Planets in German A Label Me! Printout Label the Solar System in German. Answers |
The Planets in Italian A Label Me! Printout Label the Solar System in Italian. Answers |
The Planets in Portuguese Label the planets in Portuguese. Answers |
The Planets in Spanish A Label Me! Printout Label the Solar System in Spanish. Answers |
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