This small planet spins around slowly compared to Earth, so one day lasts a long time. Mercury takes 59 Earth days to make one full rotation. A year on Mercury goes by fast. Because it’s the closest planet to the sun, it doesn’t take very long to go all the way around. It completes one revolution around the sun in just 88 Earth days. If you lived on Mercury, you’d have a birthday every three months!

A day on Mercury is not like a day here on Earth. For us, the sun rises and sets each and every day. Because Mercury has a slow spin and short year, it takes a long time for the sun to rise and set there. Mercury only has one sunrise every 180 Earth days! Isn't that weird?

This small planet spins around slowly compared to Earth, so one day lasts a long time. Mercury takes 59 Earth days to make one full rotation. A year on Mercury goes by fast. Because it’s the closest planet to the sun, it doesn’t take very long to go all the way around. It completes one revolution around the sun in just 88 Earth days. If you lived on Mercury, you’d have a birthday every three months!

A day on Mercury is not like a day here on Earth. For us, the sun rises and sets each and every day. Because Mercury has a slow spin and short year, it takes a long time for the sun to rise and set there. Mercury only has one sunrise every 180 Earth days! Isn't that weird?

a cartoon of Mercury smiling, and saying, I'm pretty small.

Structure and Surface

Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system.

Mercury is a terrestrial planet. It is small and rocky.

Mercury doesn't really have an atmosphere.

Time on Mercury

A day on Mercury lasts 59 Earth days.

A year on Mercury lasts 88 Earth days.

Mercury’s Neighbors

Mercury does not have any moons.

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.

Venus is Mercury’s neighboring planet.

Quick History

Mercury has been known since ancient times because it can be seen without advanced telescopes.

Mercury has been visited by two spacecraft: Mariner 10 and MESSENGER.

Venus is unusual because it spins the opposite direction of Earth and most other planets. And its rotation is very slow. It takes about 243 Earth days to spin around just once. Because it's so close to the sun, a year goes by fast. It takes 225 Earth days for Venus to go all the way around the sun. That means that a day on Venus is a little longer than a year on Venus.

Since the day and year lengths are similar, one day on Venus is not like a day on Earth. Here, the sun rises and sets once each day. But on Venus, the sun rises every 117 Earth days. That means the sun rises two times during each year on Venus, even though it is still the same day on Venus! And because Venus rotates backwards, the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.Just like Mercury, Venus doesn't have any moons.https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/all-about-venus/en/

Since we live here, you might think we know all there is to know about Earth. Not at all, actually! We have a lot we can learn about our home planet. Right now, there are many satellites orbiting Earth taking pictures and measurements. This is how we can learn more about weather, oceans, soil, climate change, and many other important topics.

Liquid water could be potentially be extracted from ground ice (at or buried beneath the surface), the atmosphere or hydrated minerals.  Oxygen can be generated from the carbon dioxide that makes up most of Mars' atmosphere.  The Mars 2020 rover mission will include an instrument (MOXIE) to demonstrate the technology for oxygen generation.

There are signs of ancient floods on Mars, but now water mostly exists in icy dirt and thin clouds. On some Martian hillsides, there is evidence of liquid salty water in the ground.

Scientists want to know if Mars may have had living things in the past. They also want to know if Mars could support life now or in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrMo1ohW3Iw&t=529s

Jupiter has 53 named moons and another 26 awaiting official names. Combined, scientists now think Jupiter has 79 moons. There are many interesting moons orbiting the planet, but 

-78 degrees C

Time to orbit the sun:29.45 Earth years

Moons:62

Lord of the rings 

Gallielo Galli discovered Satern

Orbital period: 29 years

Radius: 58,232 km

Surface area: 42.7 billion km²

Mass: 5.683 × 10^26 kg (95.16 M⊕)

Moons: Titan, Enceladus, Mimas, Dione, Tethys, Iapetus, Hyperion, Rhea, Pan, Epimetheus, Daphnis, Telesto, Phoebe, Paaliaq, Ymir, Erriapus, Ijiraq, Kiviuq, Polydeuces, Methone, Albiorix, Siarnaq, Tarvos, Narvi, Pallene