EARTH
You are here1.
MERCURY
The closest planet to the Sun. And to Earth. Wait, what? Mercury is the closest planet to the Earth? But what about Venus? It’s clearly in between the Earth and Mercury. It’s got to be. That’s what I thought too until I watched a fantastic video explaining it all2. Check it out.
JUPITER
The biggest planet in the Solar System. Jupiter is, as you might know, a gas giant. Which basically means that it’s like a cloud; there’s no solid surface, meaning you can’t actually land on Jupiter. You can just poke your head into the hydrogen-and-helium-rich atmosphere and hope for the best. Oh, and remember that it rains diamonds on Jupiter4?
PLUTO
Remember back when Pluto was a planet? It was declared a dwarf planet in 2006 after scientists discovered Pluto is actually not a planet5, but one of many celestial objects in a large group known as the Kupier belt6. It was discovered in 1930, and due to its distance from the Sun, it takes Pluto about 248 Earth years to complete its orbit once. This means that in the 76 years that it was considered a planet, it didn’t even manage to finish one orbit. But don’t feel bad for Pluto. After all, it does have a radioactive element named after it7.
THE MOON
What would the Earth be without the Moon? I mean without it, what would we look up at every night when feeling melancholic? That’s what the Moon’s for, right? I’m joking, of course. It’s also for werewolves to howl at when they become human again.
VENUS
Despite being similar in size to Earth, this planet is a little weird; its day is longer than its year, first of all. It’s because Venus spins relatively slower than it goes around the Sun. Imagine that. A year goes by, but the day still isn’t over. Secondly, Venus doesn’t have any moons. Apart from Mercury, it’s the only planet that doesn’t have any — even Pluto, the supposed dwarf planet, has five. There’s also a thing called the transit of Venus, which is when Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun. It’s a rare astronomical event3 — that’s not going to happen for a while; the last one was in 2012 and it was awesome. Just kidding, I didn’t see it — with the next one taking place in December 2117. Set your alarms, people.
SATURN
This is Saturn without all its rings, by the way. Did you know that if you put Saturn in a huge tank of water, it would float? Yeah, I know. Such a pointless piece of information.
