Saturn's rings sometimes disappear page 14 and other facts about Saturn's rings The moon is falling toward us page 16 and other facts about the moon's orbit Sunsets on Mars are blue page 18 and other facts about the sky on Mars If you put Saturn in a giant bath it would float page 20 and other facts about Saturn's composition
Billions of planets don't circle any star page 22 and other facts about rogue planets Jupiter has a storm bigger than Earth page 24 and other facts about Jupiter's Great Red Spot Even More Facts page 26 Glossary page 28 Further Information page 31 Index page 32
way around A year is how long it 1 FACT A DAY IS LONGER THAN A YEAR ON VENUS A day is how long a planet takes to spin all the takes a planet to circle the sun A Venus day is 243 Earth days a year is only 225 New day Slow spinner Venus spins on its axis veeeerry slowly compared with the other planets in our solar system including Earth This is why its days are so long Weirdly it doesn't always spin around at the same speed Although it takes around 243 Earth days for Venus to turn all the way around and complete a day the exact time can vary by up to seven minutes Scientists are still not entirely sure why loading
Odd one out Venus also turns in the opposite direction of Earth and most other planets And although its solid body takes 243 Earth days to turn all the way around its atmosphere the layers of gases around it takes only four Earth days to complete the same rotation Imagine the sky and clouds on Earth spinning around 60 times faster than the planet under your feet it's enough to make you dizzy dhe Different days Venus has the longest day of any planet in our solar system A day on Mercury the closest planet to the sun lasts 59 Earth days and a day on Mars is just an hour longer than on Earth Farther out the other planets are much speedier spinners a day on Jupiter is just 10 hours the shortest of all Saturn 11 hours Uranus 17 hours and Neptune 16 hours aren't too far behind I'm only six months old on Neptune Round trip The closer a planet is to the sun the shorter its journey around it Mercury the closest planet to the sun completes this loop in just 88 Earth days giving it the shortest year of all our solar system's planets A 12 year old on Earth would be 52 years old if they lived on Mercury And the longest year That would be Neptune where a year is 59,800 Earth days or just under 164 Earth years
