Planets for kids: fun facts about all eight planets

The planets in order

Starting next to the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. To remember them, try: "My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming".

The first four are small and rocky, like Earth. The last four are giants made mostly of gas and ice, and you couldn't stand on them.

The Sun and the Moon

The Sun

• The Sun is a star: a giant ball of hot gas that makes its own light.
• About 1.3 million Earths would fit inside the Sun.
• Its light takes about 8 minutes to reach us.

The Moon

• The Moon always shows us the same face, because it spins once each time it goes round Earth.
• Footprints left by astronauts can last for millions of years: there is no wind to blow them away.
• The Moon is slowly moving away from Earth, about 3.8 cm a year.

The rocky planets

Mercury

• Mercury is the smallest planet and the closest to the Sun.
• A year on Mercury is just 88 Earth days.
• Its days are scorching hot and its nights are freezing: it has almost no air to hold the heat.

Venus

• Venus is the hottest planet, hot enough to melt lead, because its thick clouds trap the heat.
• Venus spins backwards, so the Sun rises in the west there.
• A day on Venus (243 Earth days to spin once) is longer than its year (225 days).

Earth

• Earth is the only place we know of with life.
• About 71 per cent of Earth is covered in water.
• Earth leans over by 23.4°, which is why we have seasons.

Mars

• Mars is red because its dust is full of rusty iron.
• Olympus Mons on Mars is the biggest volcano in the Solar System, about two and a half times as tall as Mount Everest.
• A day on Mars is only about 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth.

The giant planets

Jupiter

• Jupiter is the biggest planet: more than 1,300 Earths would fit inside it.
• The Great Red Spot is a storm bigger than Earth that has been raging for hundreds of years.
• Jupiter spins faster than any other planet: a day there is under 10 hours.

Saturn

• Saturn's rings are made of billions of pieces of ice and rock.
• Saturn would float in a bath big enough to hold it: it is lighter than water for its size.
• Saturn has the most known moons of any planet.

Uranus

• Uranus spins on its side, like a ball rolling round the Sun.
• Each pole gets 42 years of sunlight, then 42 years of darkness.
• Its blue-green colour comes from methane gas.

Neptune

• Neptune has the fastest winds in the Solar System, over 2,000 km an hour.
• It was found by maths before anyone saw it.
• A year on Neptune lasts 165 Earth years.

See them for real

Five planets are easy to see without a telescope: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. They look like bright stars that don't twinkle. Night Sky shows where each one is in your sky tonight, and Planet Dash lets you fly to them in 3D, hear about each one from a friendly narrator, and earn a mission patch for every world you know.