The Solar System
By Bentley Senger
Mercury
Mercury is one of the inner planets and is terrestrial with a crated surface like Earth's moon. The diameter of the planet is 4,879.4 km or 3,032 miles. It takes Mercury 59 days to rotate one time and 88 days to orbit the sun one time. Mercury has no moons and no rings. An interesting fact is that Mercury has had only 2 spacecrafts to ever visit it.
Venus
Venus is an inner planet and is terrestrial with a cratered and volcanic landscape. The diameter of Venus is 12,103.6 km or 7,520.8 miles. It takes Venus 243 days to rotate one time and 225 days to orbit the sun one time. Venus has no moons and no rings. One interesting fact about Venus is that it spins or rotates backwards.
Mars
Mars is an inner planet and terrestrial with a rocky surface that has been altered by dust storms and volcanos. The diameter of Mars is 6,779 km or 4,212.2 miles. It takes Mars a little over 24 hours to rotate one time and 687 days to orbit the sun one time. Mars has no rings, but has 2 moons. An interesting fact about Mars is that it has a red looking surface.
Jupiter
Jupiter is one of the outer planets and is gaseous or a gas giant and does not have a rocky surface. The diameter of Jupiter is 209,733 km or 86,881.4 miles. It takes 10 hours for Jupiter to rotate around once and 12 years to orbit around the Sun. Jupiter has 50 moons and 3 rings. One unique fact about Jupiter is that it has a giant red spot that is a gigantic storm.
Saturn
Saturn is an outer planet and gaseous and does not have a solid surface. The diameter of Saturn is 116,464 m or 72,367.4 miles. It takes Saturn 10.7 hours to rotate once and 29 years to orbit around the sun once. Saturn has 53 moons and 23 rings. An interesting fact is that Saturn's rings have gaps and divisions in them.
Uranus
Uranus is an outer planet and has an icy surface . Uranus's diameter is 50,724 km or 31,518.4 miles. Uranus takes 17 hours to rotate once and 84 years to orbit around the sun once. Uranus has 27 moons and 13 rings. A interesting fact is that Uranus cannot support human life.
Neptune
Neptune is an outer planet and is a sister-like planet to Uranus since Neptune is icy. The diameter of Neptune is 49,244 km or 30,598.8 miles. It takes Neptune 16 hours to rotate once and 165 years to orbit around the sun. Neptune has 13 moons and 10 rings. A interesting fact about Neptune is that the atmosphere is mostly made up of hydrogen.
Asteroid
Asteroid are solid, rocky and irregular bodies. The largest asteroid is Ceres and measures about 590 miles across and the smallest asteroid is smaller than 1 kilometer across.
Most asteroids orbit around our sun, a star, or a region between Jupiter and Saturn.
Meteoroids, Meteorite and Meteor
Meteoroids, meteorites and meteors are made up of iron, stone, or stony-iron. Meteoroids are located between planets atmospheres. A meteor is floating around suns and planets. Meteorites are located in between planets atmospheres also.
Comets
A comet is a cosmic snowball made of ice and dust. A example of a comet is Halley's Comet and it was found back in 1066. Halley's Comet takes about 27,740 days to orbit around the sun once. Two parts of a comet are the tail which contains small solid particles and the comet's head which contains the nucleus.
Dwarf Planets
A example of a dwarf planet is Pluto which was discovered in 1930. Pluto's surface is icy and rocky and its diameter is 1,471 miles. It takes Pluto 4.60 years to orbit around the sun once.
Citations
Solar System Exploration