5 amazing facts about our solar system!

The wonders of the solar system never cease to captivate our imagination. From the scorching brilliance of the Sun, the radiant centerpiece, to the enigmatic gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn adorned with majestic rings, each planet holds its own unique charm. Earth is special with its blue oceans and green lands, and Mars is like a wondrous desert planet. Even farther away, there are icy planets called Uranus and Neptune. Sometimes we see shooting stars when comets and asteroids fly by. Exploring the solar system is like going on a big adventure to discover all these incredible places in space! We have listed some of the facts about solar system that you might not know.

Mars is as cold as the South Pole

The temperature on Mars is cold enough to freeze your bones! The average temperature on Mars is about -60°C, which is like the South Pole but without penguins. Scientists want to make Mars warmer, so they've come up with ideas. One is to put up huge mirrors that bounce sunlight to warm up the planet faster.

Mercury takes only three Earth months to orbit the Sun

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. It takes only three months to Mercury to orbit around the sun. This is the quickest trip around the Sun among all the planets.

One day is longer than a year on Venus

A day is how long a planet takes to spin around completely, and a year is how long a planet takes to go around the Sun. Venus is unique because it's one of only two planets that spin in a different direction, like going backwards. It spins really slowly compared to other planets. Some think this is because it got bumped by another planet or it gradually stopped and then started spinning the other way. Venus takes 243 Earth days to spin around once, and 225 days to go around the Sun. So, on Venus, a day is longer than a year.

Uranus doesn’t have a solid surface

If we can visit the gas planets someday, stepping off the spaceship might surprise you. This is because planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune don't have hard surfaces. They're mostly huge balls of hydrogen and helium with a rocky center. This is the reason, you might never be able to stand on Uranus.

Saturn's rings are made of 90% water

Saturn has an amazing icy rink in space. Because it's really far from the Sun, the water in its rings becomes frozen ice. Saturn is one of four planets with rings around them, just like the other big gas planets. But we didn't know about the rings on those planets until the 1970s, when special machines went to study them. Saturn's rings were the first ones seen using telescopes from Earth.