Category: Solar System

Mars, the fourth planet from the sun, is 53% smaller than Earth. It has a thin atmosphere composed of mainly carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon gases. Its atmosphere offers little protection from incoming meteorites and easily lets heat from the Sun escape the planet. If you were to stand on its surface, it would feel…

Venus, the second planet from the Sun is similar in size to Earth. However, similarities end there. Its surface is hot enough to melt lead and from the surface, due to its thick atmosphere, the Sun appears to be a smear of distant light. Venus’s day is longer then its year and it spins the…

Of the many bodies in our solar system, the Sun is the largest. It contains 99.86% of the total mass in our solar system and could fit roughly 1.3 million Earths. The Sun is hot enough to undergo thermonuclear fusion, when hydrogen fuses together to form the heavier element, helium. It is an oblate spheroid,…