Mercury SIZE radius 1,516 miles 2,439 7 km MOONS 0 DISTANCE FROM SUN 36 million miles 58 million km TIME TO ORBIT SUN 1 year 88 Earth days COSMIC DATA Like Venus Earth and Mars Mercury is a terrestrial planet Its rocky surface has lots of craters and looks similar to the surface of Earth’s Moon Mercury is an incredibly hot planet during the day and extremely cold at night daytime temperatures can reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit 430 degrees Celsius and at night the temperature can drop to 290 degrees Fahrenheit 180 degrees Celsius One day on Mercury the time it takes for the planet to rotate once takes about 59 Earth days 8
Planets According to the International Astronomical Union in order for an object in space to be considered a planet it must orbit a sun but it cannot be a moon of another space object A planet must also be round and large enough to move objects such as asteroids and comets out of its way to continue its orbit Because of the last reason Pluto formerly considered a planet was renamed to the dwarf planet category in 2006 Our solar system has eight objects that are officially classified as planets and are typically ordered by how far away they are from the Sun Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus and Neptune There are three different types of planets in our solar system terrestrial gas giant and ice giant The first four planets from the Sun Mercury Venus Earth and Mars are terrestrial planets This type of planet has a rocky solid surface The next two planets Jupiter and Saturn are gas giant planets The opposite of terrestrial planets the gas giant planets are mostly made up of gas The last two planets Uranus and Neptune are ice giant planets because they are primarily made up of ice Mercury is the smallest of the eight planets and is closest to our Sun 9
Venus SIZE radius 3,760 miles 6,052 km MOONS 0 DISTANCE FROM SUN 67 million miles 108 million km TIME TO ORBIT SUN 1 year 225 Earth days COSMIC DATA Unlike most of the other planets Venus rotates backward so the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east One day on Venus the time it takes for the planet to rotate once takes about 243 Earth days because of this backward rotation Like Mercury Mars and Earth Venus is a terrestrial planet but its surface is unique because it has many volcanoes far more than on Earth Venus also has winds that blow with the force of a hurricane and has been visited by more than 40 spacecraft 10
Venus is the second planet from the Sun and other than the Moon is the brightest object in the night sky 11
