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50 Essential Facts About the Solar System

The 50 facts that you MUST know on your way to becoming a space expert!

The Sun is a star	The Sun
The Sun makes up 99.86% of the mass in the Solar System
The Sun creates energy through nuclear fusion
It takes eight minutes for light from the Sun to reach Earth
The Sun is 4.5 billion years old. About halfway through its life
Mercury is the smallest planet and the closest to the Sun	Mercury
A day on Mercury lasts 6 months. A year lasts for 3 months
Mercury has wrinkles which were caused by the planet cooling
Mercury has more craters than any other planet in the Solar System
Mercury's atmosphere is very thin
Venus is almost exactly the size of Earth	Venus
Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System
Venus rotates in the opposite direction to most other planets
Seen from Earth, only the Sun and Moon are brighter than Venus
Venus (along with Mercury) has no moons or rings
Earth is the only planet not named after a Roman god	Earth
The Earth is the densest planet in the Solar System
Earth takes 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds to rotate on its axis
As far as we know, Earth is the only place that life exists
Scientists have found evidence of Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars
The tallest mountain in the solar system is on Mars	Mars
There is no liquid water on Mars though it is there in solid form
Mars has two moons
Sunsets on Mars are blue
Mars' orbit is the least circular of all the planets
Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System	Jupiter
At 10 hours, Jupiter has the shortest day of all the planets
Jupiter is famed for its red spot - a storm twice the size of Earth
Jupiter has a minimum of 67 moons. There may be dozens more
Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is larger than the planet Mercury
Saturn is the most distant planet that can be seen with the naked eye	Saturn
Saturn's rings are made mostly of ice, with some rock and dust thrown in
Saturn has more moons than any other planet
If it could be placed in water, Saturn would float
You could fit 764 Earths inside Saturn
Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781	Uranus
Uranus (along with neptune) is an “ice giant”
Uranus is the coldest of the planets
Like Saturn, Uranus has rings
Uranus rotates on its side, unlike any other planet
Neptune is the furthest planet from the Sun	Neptune
Neptune has the strongest winds in the Solar System
Neptune was discovered independently by two astronomers in 1846
Neptune appears blue due to the methane in its atmosphere
Neptune has 14 moons. The largest is Triton
Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh	Pluto
Until 2006, Pluto was a planet. It is now considered a dwarf planet
Pluto is a Kuiper Belt object
Pluto is smaller than Earth's Moon
Most of Pluto is made from ice

50 Essential Facts About the Solar System

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