Planets

It is a terrestrial planet because it has a solid, rocky surface like other planets in the inner solar system.

In other ways the planets are very different.

Venus was the first planet to have its motions plotted across the sky, as early as the second millennium BC and spins very slowly on its axis, it spins in the opposite direction to the other planets.

Our solar system is made up of a star, eight planets and countless smaller bodies such as dwarf planets, asteroids and comets.

The planets of our solar system hold more than 150 moons in their orbits.

The four giant planets, and at least one asteroid, have rings.

Planet rovers are robots for exploring distant planets.

Its orbital period around the Sun of 87.97 days is the shortest of all the planets in the Solar System.

Compared to what is known about the other planets in the Solar System, little is known about Mercury.

Unlike many other planets which "self-heal" through natural geological processes, the surface of Mercury is covered in craters.

The seasons are extreme because its elliptical (oval-shaped) orbital path around the Sun is more elongated than most other planets in the solar system.

Jupiter is twice as massive as all the other planets in the Solar System put together.

Jupiter moving out of the inner Solar System would have allowed the formation of inner planets, including Earth.