This is a list of planets in the Solar System.
Stars[]
Sun[]
Main article: Sun
- The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma, with internal convective motion that generates a magnetic field via a dynamo process. It is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth. Its diameter is about 1.39 million kilometers, i.e. 109 times that of Earth, and its mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth, accounting for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. About three quarters of the Sun's mass consists of hydrogen (~73%); the rest is mostly helium (~25%), with much smaller quantities of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon, and iron.
Terrestrial planets[]
Mercury[]
Main article: Mercury
- Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System, and is the closest planet to the Sun, and completes an orbit every 87.97 days. Mercury is gravitationally locked with the Sun in a 3:2 spin-orbit resonance, and rotates in a way that is unique in the Solar System. As seen relative to the fixed stars, it rotates on its axis exactly three times for every two revolutions it makes around the Sun. As seen from the Sun, in a frame of reference that rotates with the orbital motion, it appears to rotate only once every two Mercurian years. An observer on Mercury would therefore see only one day every two years.
Venus[]
Main article: Venus
- Venus is the second planet from the Sun, which orbits around the Sun every 224 Earth days. It has the longest rotational period (243 days) of any planet in the Solar System, and rotates in the opposite direction to most other planets. After the Moon, it is the brightest object in the night sky, with an apparent magnitude of -4.6, which is bright enough to cast shadows at night. It is also, albeit rarely, visible to the naked eye in broad daylight. Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System, with a mean surface temperature of 735 K (863 °F, 462 °C). Venus is shrouded by an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible light.
Earth[]
Main article: Earth
- Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and it is the home of the human race, and currently the only known place in the universe that contains life, although there are many other candidates. According to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence, Earth formed over 4.5 billion years ago. Earth's gravity interacts with other objects in space, especially the Sun and the Moon, Earth's only natural satellite. Earth revolves around the Sun in 365.26 days, a period known as an Earth year. During this time, Earth rotates about its axis about 366.26 times. Within the first billion years of Earth's history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earth's atmosphere and surface, leading to the proliferation of aerobic and anaerobic organisms. Some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago. Since then, the combination of Earth's distance from the Sun, physical properties, and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive. In the history of the Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion, occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events. Over 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth are extinct. Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely; most species have not been described. Over 7.6 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and natural resources for their survival.
Mars[]
Main article: Mars
- Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System. Mars was named after the Roman god of war Mars, and it is often called the "Red Planet" because the reddish iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance that is distinctive among the astronomical bodies visible to the naked eye. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth.
Gas giants[]
Jupiter[]
Main article: Jupiter
- Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun, and is the largest planet in the Solar System. It is a giant planet with a mass one-thousandth that of the Sun, but two-and-a-half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined. Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants; the other two giant planets, Uranus and Neptune are ice giants. Jupiter has been known to astronomers since antiquity. The Romans named it after their god Jupiter. When viewed from Earth, Jupiter can reach an apparent magnitude of -2.94, bright enough for its reflected light to cast shadows, and making it on average the third-brightest object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus.
Saturn[]
Main article: Saturn
- Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun, and the second largest planet in our Solar System, next to Jupiter. Saturn is a gas giant with an average radius about nine times that of Earth. While only one-eighth the average density of Earth, with its larger volume Saturn is just over 95 times more massive. Saturn's interior is probably composed of a core of iron, nickel and rock (silicon and oxygen compounds), surrounded by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen, an intermediate layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium and an outer gaseous layer.
Ice giants[]
Uranus[]
Main article: Uranus
- Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. Uranus is similar in composition to Neptune, and both are of different chemical composition than the larger gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. For this reason, astronomers sometimes place them in a separate category called "ice giants". Uranus's atmosphere, although similar to Jupiter's and Saturn's in its primary composition of hydrogen and helium, contains more "ices" such as water, ammonia, and methane, along with traces of hydrocarbons.
Neptune[]
Main article: Neptune
- Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun. It is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third-largest by mass. Among the gaseous planets in the Solar System, Neptune is the most dense out of them. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times the mass of Earth but not as dense as Neptune. Neptune orbits the sun at an average of 30.1 astronomical units. The planet is named after the Roman god of the sea, "Neptune", so the planet's astronomical symbol is Neptune's trident (♆). Neptune is similar in composition to Uranus, and both have compositions that differ from those of the larger gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn. Neptune's atmosphere, like Jupiter and Saturn's, is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, along with traces of hydrocarbons and possibly nitrogen; it contains a higher proportion of "ices" such as water, ammonia, and methane.