Planets in the Solar System

Mercury
Named for the messenger to the Roman gods, Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun
and as a result, revolves around our star in the least amount of time.
Characteristics:

Mercury has a solid rocky surface and like the Moon, has many craters.
Mercury has a very weak atmosphere.
Mercury goes through extremes in temperatures. Daytime temperature can reach up to
450 C, which is enough to melt lead. On the other hand, the planet's nighttime side can
be quite cold, temperatures as low as -180 C have been recorded by Mariner 10.
Mercury has no moon.
It was first photographed from space by the American space probe Mariner 10 in 1974.

Venus
Venus, named for the Roman goddess of love, is known as Earth's "sister" planet
because they are very near in size, mass and density. However, the similarities
end there. Venus is the planet that approaches closest to Earth and can be the
brightest object in the sky, next to the Sun and Moon.
Characteristics:

Venus has a solid rocky surface that is now known to be covered with craters and
volcanic mountains.
Venus has clouds of sulfuric acid that cover the planet. Because of this, we cannot see
its surface.
Venus has a very dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide gas (CO2) that has the property
of letting in sunlight but does not permit the resulting heat to escape. This, together with
the planet's relative proximity to the Sun has caused temperatures on Venus to reach up
to 455 C. This is commonly known as the greenhouse effect. The atmospheric pressure
at the surface of Venus is 90 times that of Earth A visitor to the planet would be instantly
crushed without special protection.
Venus has no moon.

Earth
Earth is the only planet known to have living things. Its atmosphere is composed mostly of
oxygen and nitrogen. The earths atmosphere protects it from the suns harmful rays. The
atmosphere also keeps heat as well as water from escaping into space. Earth is a rocky planet.

Characteristics:

is a little more than 12,000 kilometers in diameter

It rotates on its axis every 24 hours (a day) and revolves around the Sun every 365 days
(a year).
Beneath its surface lie solild iron and nickel surrounded by rocks.
Temperatures range from as high as 7,000 C to about 870 C.

Mars: The Red Planet

Mars, named for the Roman God of war was once thought to possess a highly
organized civilisation. Much of this came about when the Italian astronomer
Giovanni Schiaparelli thought he observed canali on the Martian surface. In
English, canali means "channels" but was improperly translated to meaning
"canals", which implied they might have been dug by intelligent life. In America, Percival Lowell
set up an observatory to study Mars. Lowell's observations and his book, Mars and its Canals,
written in 1906, fuelled the misconception that "intelligent life" existed on Mars. It is now known
that the canali or canals do not exist, but were an effect of how the brain and eye work together.
The Mariner spaceprobes and Viking landers found no evidence of life on Mars.
Characteristics:

Mars has a solid rocky surface rich in iron.This is what gives it a reddish colour. Among
its surface features are craters, extinct volcanoes, canyons and river-like features where
water may once have flowed.
Mars, like Earth goes through seasons that last about 6 months,(it's axis of rotation is
tilted by 24o to the plane of its orbit)
Mars has polar "ice" caps, like Earth, that expand and contract with the seasons,
however, they are composed of frozen carbon dioxide and water ice.
Mars has a thin atmosphere mostly composed of carbon dioxide gas (CO2), the
atmospheric pressure at the surface is 150 times less than Earth's.
Winds on Mars can exceed 300 km/hr. Because of this, Mars has planet-wide dust
storms that can shroud the planet for weeks at a time.
Mars has two small moons; Phobos (from the Greek, meaning fear) and Deimos (from
the Greek, meaning terror).

Jupiter
Jupiter, named for the King of the Roman Gods, is the fifth planet from the Sun and
is by far the largest planet in the Solar System. The first telescopic observations of
Jupiter were made by Galileo Galilei in the year 1610. With his small refracting
telescope, Galileo discovered four of Jupiters' moons: Io, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede commonly known as the Galilean satellites.

Characteristics:

Jupiter has no solid surface. It is a gaseous planet composed mostly of hydrogen (85%)
and helium (15%) gas.
The visible surface of Jupiter is composed of clouds characterized by dark coloured belts
(of ammonium hydrosulfide) and lighter coloured zones (of ammonia ice crystals).
Jupiter generates more energy than it receives from the Sun. If Jupiter had been much
more massive, temperatures could have been high enough for the planet to become a
star.
Jupiter has the largest storm in the Solar System called the Great Red Spot. This
atmospheric feature has been in existence ever since the first telescopes were trained
on the planet over 300 years ago. The Great Red Spot is in rotation and is so big that
Earth would fit inside about four to five times.
Jupiter has a ring discovered by a Voyager 1 photograph of the planet when it was
backlit by the Sun.
Jupiter has 16 known moons. The four largest are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Saturn
Saturn, named for the Roman God of the Harvest, was the farthest known planet
from the Sun until the discovery of Uranus in 1781. The second largest planet in
the Solar System has an intricate ring system.
Characteristics:

Saturn has no solid surface. It is a gaseous planet mostly composed of hydrogen and
helium gas.
Saturn's atmosphere has clouds that are banded (similar to Jupiter's but not as
colourful).
Saturn generates more heat than it receives from the Sun.
Saturn has an extensive ring system. The rings have a thickness that varies from tens of
metres to about 1 km. The rings are made up of thousands of tiny ringlets mostly
composed of water ice and rock particles that range in size from grains of dust to objects
kilometres across.
Saturn is less dense than water. As a result, it would float if we could find a big enough
ocean.
Saturn has 18 known moons. Titan is one of the most interesting because it is the only
moon to have an atmosphere.
Saturn's rotation period of 10 hrs. 40 min and the fact that it is a gaseous planet
produces flattening at the poles and at the equator, even more so than any of the other
gaseous planets.

Uranus
Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781. The seventh planet from the
Sun is named after the Greek God, Ruler of the World. Uranus is so far from the Sun

that it is almost 4 times the Sun-Jupiter distance. As a result, it takes about 84 "Earth years" to
complete one orbit around the Sun.
Characteristics:

Uranus has no solid surface. It is a gaseous planet composed of hydrogen and helium
gas.
Current thought on the interior of Uranus holds that it may be made up of water,
methane and ammonia. Uranus may have a solid rocky core.
Uranus is the only giant planet to lack a "significant" internal heat source. It's rings are
composed of ice and rock particles that are darker than Saturn's and almost as black as
charcoal.
Uranus' axis of rotation is tilted almost parallel (97) to the plane of its orbit.
It has 15 known moons (10 of them discovered by Voyager 2 in 1986), one of which is
the most perplexing in the whole Solar System. Miranda has a surface that shows
evidence of having been shattered and then reassembled more once.

Neptune
Neptune is named for the Roman God of the Sea. It is the first planet to be
discovered by mathematical prediction. It was known at the time that something
was causing a perturbation in the orbit of Uranus, quite possibly another planet.
Independent calculations made by Urbain Leverrier and John Cough Adams led
to its discovery in 1846 by J.G. Galle at the Berlin Observatory.
Characteristics:

Neptune has no solid surface. It is a gaseous planet, primarily composed of hydrogen

and helium gas, with traces of methane. Its colour is a blueish green. Neptune's interior
may be similar to that of Uranus.
Neptune possesses an internal heat source.
Neptune has a dynamic atmosphere. Cloud features and a giant storm system similar to
Jupiter's Great Red Spot were discovered by Voyager 2. Neptune's large storm system
is called the Great Dark Spot and is located in the planet's southern hemisphere.
Neptune has rings that are different from those found at Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus.
They don't circle the planet completely, but are partial rings called "ring arcs".
Neptune has 8 known satellites, six of them were discovered by Voyager 2.