What is a planet?

Ages ago, people noticed that a few stars moved around the sky from night to night among all the
countless non-moving stars. They called them "planets," which means "wanderers."

We now know that these planets are not stars at all. They are fairly nearby objects that orbit our Sun.
Many objects orbit our Sun but not all of them are planets!

Planet: The Official Definition

A planet is a celestial body that

1. is in orbit around the Sun,

2. has enough mass for its gravity to make the objects have (nearly) a round shape,
and

3. has cleared other large objects from the region it crosses during its orbit. (Its gravity
caused other orbiting objects to impact, or crash into, its surface or be ejected from
our solar system.)

Unfortunately, Pluto does not meet the third requirement.

Now There Are Dwarf Planets, Too!

A “dwarf planet” is a celestial body that

1. is in orbit around the Sun,

2. has enough mass for its gravity to make the object have a (nearly) round shape,

3. has not cleared other large objects from the region it crosses during its orbit. (Its
gravity is not great enough to cause other orbiting objects to impact, or crash into,
its surface or be ejected from our solar system.)

4. is not a satellite of another object.

Pluto meets all of these requirements. It is now the best example of a dwarf planet.

Our Solar System from the Outside In

Imagine entering our solar system from interstellar space. As you travel toward our Sun,
you would move through three distinct regions. First you would pass countless icy worlds.
Then you would enter the realm of the giant planets. Finally, you would reach the rocky
planets closest to the Sun. Let's take a look at our solar system—from the outside in!

First Stop: Icy Worlds

Worlds in our outer solar system consist mostly of water ice, other ices, and some rock.
Various processes have shaped their surfaces into strange landscapes. Because they are
so far from Earth, we are just starting to learn about them, how they formed, and how they
interact with the rest of our solar system. Scientists are especially interested in whether all
this water in our outer solar system may contain life.

The Oort Cloud & The Kuiper Belt

A spherical "cloud" of comets, known as the Oort Cloud, surrounds the outer reaches of
our solar system. The Oort cloud is vast. It starts between 2,000 and 5,000 AU from the
Sun and extends out to 50,000 AU. (One AU, or astronomical unit, is the average distance
between the Earth and the Sun.) It may contain trillions of objects larger than two-thirds of
a mile (one kilometer) in size.

Closer to the Sun but still beyond Neptune is a doughnut-shaped region, known as the
Kuiper Belt, containing countless icy bodies. Some are quite large, however Pluto is the
largest member of the Kuiper Belt.

Pluto A Dwarf Planet

scientists thought Pluto was a planet just like Mars or Jupiter. But then they
discovered objects orbiting beyond Pluto, some quite large. Today, Pluto is
known as a dwarf planet. Pluto is found in the icy outer edges of our Solar
System in what is called the Kuiper Belt. While Pluto is too small to be
considered a planet, it is the largest object in the Kuiper Belt.

Discovery
In the early 1900s, astronomer Percival Lowell began to search for a planet beyond
Neptune. He thought (incorrectly) that a ninth planet was needed to account for
unexplained motions in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. Clyde Tombaugh, a young
astronomer at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, later took up the search. In 1930 at age
24, he discovered the object he later named Pluto.

Pluto By the Numbers

 248.89 Earth years to orbit the Sun
 6.4 days to complete one rotation
 39.5 AU from the Sun
 5 natural satellites

Characteristics of Pluto
Atmosphere
The atmosphere of Pluto comes and goes depending on how close Pluto is to the Sun.
When it is closer to the Sun and its surface temperature is warmer, methane on the
surface turns to gas and forms a temporary atmosphere. However, when Pluto moves
further away from the Sun and Pluto becomes cooler, the methane freezes again and the
atmosphere disappears. New Horizons captured this image of Pluto. Backlit by the Sun, the
dwarf planet is dark, while its atmosphere resembles a bright halo.

Natural Satellites
Before New Horizons arrived at Pluto, scientists carefully looked for orbiting debris that
could pose a risk to the spacecraft. They discovered four tiny moons.
Second Stop: Giant Planets
Our solar system has four giant planets: Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter. Giant
planets are much larger than Earth—they are unimaginably huge, stunningly beautiful,
and sometimes a little weird. They are made mostly of gases instead of solid materials,
and a host of Moons orbits each one. Neptune and Uranus likely have regions of ices
beneath their atmospheres. Saturn and Jupiter are our largest planets. They are mostly
made of hydrogen and helium, the Sun's most abundant elements.

Neptune The Blue Giant

Neptune, also known as the Blue Giant for its large size and vivid color, is the outermost
planet in our Solar System. It joins Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter as one of the giant planets.
Giant planets are unimaginably huge, stunningly beautiful, and sometimes a little weird.
They are made mostly of gases instead of solid materials, but Neptune likely has regions
of ices beneath its atmosphere.

Neptune By the Numbers

 165 Earth years to orbit the Sun
 16.11 hours to complete one rotation
 30.06 AU from the Sun
 14 natural satellites

Discovery
The five planets visible to the naked eye had been known since ancient times. Neptune,
however, was not discovered until the age of the telescope. Irregularities in the orbit of
Uranus led French mathematician Joseph Le Verrier and British astronomer John Couch
Adams to independently calculate where an unknown body affecting Uranus might be.
Using Le Verrier’s prediction, German astronomer Johann Galle found Neptune in 1946
while observing the sky at the Berlin Observatory.

Characteristics of Neptune
An Ice Giant
Neptune is an ice giant. An ice giant is a giant planet that is made up of a thick soup of
water, methane, and ammonia which scientists refer to as "ices." Neptune’s core is rocky,
and its mantle is made up of the icy water and ammonia associated with the ice giants. Its
striking blue hue is due to the haze that is created by methane and hydrogen sulfide gases
in its atmosphere.

Rings
All four giant planets have rings. Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune have only a few faint,
narrow rings that are difficult to observe.

As with Uranus, Neptune’s rings were discovered when astronomers observed them
blocking the light from a star. Six rings were later identified in Voyager 2 images. The
outermost ring contains bright areas called arcs, where material is clumped together.
These structures puzzle scientists because the material should even out.

Storms
Large storms swirl in the atmospheres of the ice giants. Neptune’s frigid winds rage at up
to 1,200 mph (2,000 km/h). While exploring Neptune in 1989, Voyager 2 observed a storm
larger than the planet Earth. Astronomers called it the Great Dark Spot. By 1994, the
Hubble Space Telescope revealed that the spot had disappeared, but another large storm
soon developed.

Just beneath the Great Dark Spot in this Voyager image is a bright cloud feature called the
Scooter, because its sped around Neptune faster than the dark spot. To the south of the
Scooter is a similar but smaller storm named Dark Spot 2.

Moons
Neptune has 14 moons. The Voyager spacecraft revealed the moons of the giant planets to
be surprisingly diverse worlds in their own right. Further exploration has unveiled intricate
surfaces both young and old, volcanoes and impact features, huge plumes and geysers,
deep canyons, subsurface oceans, and even clues to possible environments that might be
friendly to simple forms of life.
Neptune's Moons
Triton
Triton is a large and very unusual moon. It orbits Neptune in the opposite direction from
most other moons. It has active geysers that release nitrogen. Its icy surface appears fairly
young, which means that an episode of warming may have erased earlier features. All
these oddities could mean that Triton formed elsewhere—in the Kuiper Belt—and was
captured by Neptune’s gravity.

Uranus The Tilted Giant

Uranus, also known as the Tilted Giant for its unique tilted rotation that makes it appear to
spin on its side, is the second outermost planet in our Solar System. It joins Neptune,
Saturn, and Jupiter as one of the giant planets. Giant planets are unimaginably huge,
stunningly beautiful, and sometimes a little weird. They are made mostly of gases instead
of solid materials.

Uranus By the Numbers

 84.01 Earth years to orbit the Sun
 17.24 hours to complete one rotation
 19.19 AU from the Sun
 20+ natural satellites

Discovery
The five planets visible to the naked eye had been known since ancient times. Uranus,
however, was not discovered until the age of the telescope. British astronomer Sir William
Herschel “discovered” Uranus in 1781. However, earlier observers had seen it many times
but thought it was a star. Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus accidentally while
conducting a star survey. One “star” seemed different. Years of earlier observations, some
by German astronomer Johann Bode, revealed that it was indeed a planet.

Characteristics of Uranus
An Ice Giant
Uranus is an ice giant. An ice giant is a giant planet that is made up of a thick soup of
water, methane, and ammonia which scientists refer to as "ices." Uranus’s core is rocky,
and its mantle is made up of the icy water and ammonia associated with the ice giants. Its
striking blue-green hue is due to the haze that is created by methane and hydrogen sulfide
gases in its atmosphere. Like the other ice giant Neptune, large storms swirl in Uranus's
the atmosphere.
Tilt
Uranus’s odd tilt makes it unique among our solar system’s giant worlds. A collision with a
planet-sized object may have caused Uranus to tip over early in its history.
With its axis tilted almost 98°, Uranus’s environment differs from other planets in our solar
system. The Sun points directly at each pole for long stretches of the planet’s orbit. This
produces years-long winters when half of the planet is in continuous darkness, shadowed
from the Sun’s light. Uranus also rotates in the opposite direction from most other planets.
Only Uranus and Venus spin clockwise.

Rings
All four giant planets have rings. Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune have only a few faint,
narrow rings that are difficult to observe.
The rings of Uranus were first observed by scientists using Earth-based telescopes and the
Kuiper Airborne Observatory. The rings were discovered when they caused the light of a
star to flicker as Uranus passed in front of it. Voyager 2 took the first images of the rings.
This one shows five of the 13 rings identified around Uranus.

Moons
Uranus has 27 moons. The Voyager spacecraft revealed the moons of the giant planets to
be surprisingly diverse worlds in their own right. Further exploration has unveiled intricate
surfaces both young and old, volcanoes and impact features, huge plumes and geysers,
deep canyons, subsurface oceans, and even clues to possible environments that might be
friendly to simple forms of life.
Uranus’s moon Miranda, pictured here, looks like a sloppy patchwork of unconnected
parts. Made of ice and rock, it has huge chasms 12 times deeper than the Grand Canyon.
Miranda’s strange appearance mystifies scientists. Perhaps the moon was shattered and
came back together. Or maybe huge impacts broke up its icy surface, which then refroze.

Saturn The Ringed Giant

Saturn, also known as the Ringed Giant for its stunning set of rings, is the third outermost
planet in our Solar System. It joins Neptune, Uranus, and Jupiter as one of the giant
planets. Giant planets are unimaginably huge, stunningly beautiful, and sometimes a little
weird. They are made mostly of gases instead of solid materials.
Saturn By the Numbers
 29.45 Earth years to orbit the Sun
 10.66 hours to complete one rotation
 9.539 AU from the Sun
 50+ natural satellites

Characteristics of Saturn
A Gas Giant
The largest planets in our solar system, Saturn and Jupiter are made up mostly of
hydrogen and helium. They rotate fast and have strong winds and storms. Because they
are so massive, temperatures and pressures deep within them increase to extraordinary
levels. Hydrogen takes on a liquid metallic form. The nature of their rocky cores remains a
mystery.

Hexagonal Polar Vortex

The Cassini spacecraft took detailed images of Saturn’s oddly shaped north polar vortex
through four different filters. Unlike on Earth, where winds blow around the poles in a
circular pattern, Saturn’s north polar vortex is shaped like a hexagon! It has persisted for
at least many decades.
Rings
Saturn has a massive ring system. Seen edge on, Saturn’s thin rings almost seem to
disappear. But viewed from above or below, they present a scene of dramatic beauty
unique in our solar system.
Saturn’s rings are made of billions of fragments of mostly ice and some rock. They range
in size from dust particles to large boulders. A few bodies may be as large as two-thirds of
a mile (one kilometer) across. The rings are named with letters in the order they were
discovered. They are separated in places by narrow gaps. The gravity of small nearby
moons influences the appearance and structure of the rings. Called shepherding satellites,
these tiny moons help form clumps, bends, and braids in the rings.

Moons
Saturn has 62 moons. The Voyager spacecraft revealed the moons of the giant planets to
be surprisingly diverse worlds in their own right. Further exploration has unveiled intricate
surfaces both young and old, volcanoes and impact features, huge plumes and geysers,
deep canyons, subsurface oceans, and even clues to possible environments that might be
friendly to simple forms of life.
The moons of Jupiter and Saturn are not dead, unchanging worlds. Several show evidence
of geologic activity throughout their history. Complex patterns, faulting, cliffs, and deep
canyons tell stories of stresses and resurfacing that have shaped and reshaped the terrain.

Exploring Saturn's Moons

Titan
Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is an ocean world with a dense atmosphere, abundant
complex organic material on its icy surface, and a liquid-water ocean in its interior. The
Cassini-Huygens mission revealed Titan to be surprisingly Earth-like, with active geological
processes and opportunities for organic material to have mixed with liquid water on the
surface in the past. These attributes make Titan a unique destination to seek answers to
fundamental questions about what makes a planet or moon habitable and about the pre-
biotic chemical processes that led to the development of life here on Earth.

Iapetus
Saturn’s moon Iapetus has an odd six-mile (10-kilometer) high bulge circling its equator.
Some scientists think its origin may relate to the moon’s early rotational history. Others
think it may have formed from the collapse of a ring.

Jupiter A Giant Among Giants

Jupiter By the Numbers
 11.86 Earth years to orbit the Sun
 9.92 hours to complete one rotation
 5.203 AU from the Sun
 60+ natural satellites
Characteristics of Jupiter
A Gas Giant
The largest planets in our solar system, Saturn and Jupiter are made up mostly of
hydrogen and helium. They rotate fast and have strong winds and storms. Because they
are so massive, temperatures and pressures deep within them increase to extraordinary
levels. Hydrogen takes on a liquid metallic form. The nature of their rocky cores remains a
mystery.

Size
Jupiter is wider than 11 Earths. It has more mass than all the other seven planets of our
solar system combined.
Great Red Spot
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is a gigantic storm that has been observed for over three
centuries. More than 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) across, it rotates counterclockwise.

Cloud Bands
Jupiter’s colorful cloud bands spin around the planet at different speeds. The dark dot on
the bottom left of this image is the shadow of the moon Europa on Jupiter’s ammonia
clouds.
Rings
All four giant planets have rings. Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune have only a few faint,
narrow rings that are difficult to observe.
Voyager 2 was the spacecraft that made the surprising discovery that Jupiter had rings.
They are so thin and faint that they had never been seen from Earth.

Jupiter's Rings The Halo

The innermost ring, known as the halo, consists of dust particles that rise above and below
the ring plane. The main ring is flat. Two thin structures called the gossamer rings lie
outside.
Moons
Jupiter has 79 moons. The Voyager spacecraft revealed the moons of the giant planets to
be surprisingly diverse worlds in their own right. Further exploration has unveiled intricate
surfaces both young and old, volcanoes and impact features, huge plumes and geysers,
deep canyons, subsurface oceans, and even clues to possible environments that might be
friendly to simple forms of life.

The moons of Jupiter and Saturn are not dead, unchanging worlds. Several show evidence
of geologic activity throughout their history. Complex patterns, faulting, cliffs, and deep
canyons tell stories of stresses and resurfacing that have shaped and reshaped the terrain.

Ganymede
Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system, even larger than the
planet Mercury. Its surface is an icy layer overlying a rocky mantle and iron core. Salty
water might exist within the outer crust as well. Ganymede has two broad types of terrain:
dark cratered regions and brighter-colored deeply grooved areas.

Third Stop: Rocky Planets

The planets closest to the sun—Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury—are made mostly of
rock. Their geological history is preserved on their surfaces—their landscapes revealing
the processes that shaped them. Gravity, temperature, air, and water all play leading roles
in their geological stories. Earth is the largest of our rocky planets. It is the only planet we
know of that has both abundant liquid water and living organisms.

A Rocky Planet
The planets closest to the Sun—Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury—are made mostly of
rock. The rocky planets all formed in our inner solar system. Their geological history is
preserved on their surfaces. Their landscapes reveal the processes that shaped them:
impacts, crustal movements, volcanic activity, and erosion. Gravity, temperature, air, and
water all play leading roles in their geological stories.

Mars The Red Planet

Known as the Red Planet, Mars has always intrigued us, but only in recent decades have
we come to know our smaller neighbor as a world of great complexity.

Mars By the Numbers

 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun
 24 hr 37 min to complete one rotation
 1.524 AU from the Sun
 2 natural satellites

Characteristics of Mars
Impact
Planets and moons across our solar system bear the scars of collisions. Impact craters
form on their surfaces when a dust particle, rock, asteroid, or comet smashes into them.
Impact craters come in all sizes and shapes, depending on the impacting object size,
impact angle, and surface into which the object crashes.
A recent impact crater on Mars shows stunning “rays.” These were formed when material
from the impact was ejected across the surface.

Tectonics
Rocky worlds can also reshape themselves from internal forces that push and pull at their
crustal materials, a process called tectonics. Compressional forces shove crustal material
together to create ridges and mountains. Extensional forces stretch and pull the crust
apart to form fault scarps, canyons, and valleys. While impacts are sudden, tectonic forces
operate over long periods of time. Large rift valleys can result when crustal rock is pulled
apart by extensional forces. Valles Marineris on Mars, seen here, is the largest such valley
in our solar system—hundreds of miles wide, several thousand miles long, and up to six
miles (10 kilometers) deep.

Volcanism
Like Earth, volcanism also plays a role on Mars. Mars has a hot interior core surrounded by
hot mantles. One way these rocky worlds release interior heat is through volcanic activity.
This can involve molten rock, or magma, being forced into the crust. As the interior cools,
it shrinks, causing the crust to wrinkle like the skin of an apple as the core dries and
shrivels over time. Volcanism creates a variety of landforms, not just volcanoes, depending
on the properties of the lava (such as viscosity and composition) and on the planetary
environment (like gravity and presence of an atmosphere).
Some lava flows erupt from long cracks, called fissures. The volcanic eruption seen here
produced an 8-mile-wide, smooth, dark deposit surrounding a 20-mile-long volcanic fissure
in the Cerberus Fossae system on Mars.
Erosion
Erosion wears down landforms, but it also creates new ones. Most of the craters in the
martian highlands provide evidence for extensive erosion early in martian history. In fact,
the erosion was so intense that any crater smaller than ~5 kilometers in diameter did not
survive. Today, wind is the primary geologic process eroding the surface, creating
extensive dune fields and even eroding boulders seen by the martian landers.
Occasionally, the entire planet becomes enveloped in a global dust storm that is driven by
strong winds during southern hemisphere summer.
This image illustrates both wind deposition and erosion. Large sand ripples have formed
perpendicular to the wind-carved yardang ridges, which trend from the upper left to lower
right.

Ice Caps
Mars has a thin, cold, carbon dioxide atmosphere. Its air pressure is less than 1% that of
Earth’s. However, Mars has thick ice caps at both poles, similar to Earth.

Water
The surface of Mars is a cold, dry desert. But during its early history, it had rivers and
lakes—and perhaps even a northern ocean. Small streams on Mars joined to form larger
ones, creating tree-like networks of tributary valleys. During a wetter period on Mars over
3.5 billion years ago, some of this water also flowed into craters to form lakes.
Eberswalde crater on Mars contains an ancient river delta of meandering stream channels
that once emptied into a body of water (like a lake).
Earth The Blue Planet & Our Home
Earth is our home. It is a rocky planet, and the only planet in our Solar System that is
known to contain life. Earth shares similarities with the the neighboring planets that
formed in the inner solar system.

Earth By the Numbers

 365.25 Earth days to orbit the Sun
 23.93 hours to complete one rotation
 1 AU from the Sun
 1 natural satellite

Shaping Planet Earth: Tectonics, Impact, Volcanism, and

Erosion
 Rocky worlds like Earth can reshape themselves from internal forces that push and
pull at their crustal materials, a process called tectonics. Contractional forces shove
crustal material together to create cliff-like fault scarps, ridges, and mountains.
Extensional forces stretch and pull the crust apart to form trough sand rift valleys.
Planets and other celestial bodies across our solar system also bear the scars of
collisions.
  Impact craters form on their surfaces when a dust particle, rock, asteroid, or comet
smashes into them. While impacts are sudden, tectonic forces operate over long
periods of time. The landforms they create can take millions of years to form.
 Volcanism also plays an important role on Earth. The Earth has a hot interior core
surrounded by hot mantles. One-way rocky worlds release interior heat is through
volcanic activity. This can involve molten rock, or magma, being forced into the
crust. As the interior cools, it shrinks, causing the crust to wrinkle like the skin of an
apple as the core dries and shrivels over time. Volcanism creates a variety of
landforms, not just volcanoes, depending on the properties of the lava (such as
viscosity and composition) and on the planetary environment (like gravity and
presence of an atmosphere).
 The last featured characteristic of Earth is erosion. Erosion wears down landforms,
but it also creates new ones. On Earth, water and wind are the main agents of
erosion.

Tectonics
Earth’s “outer shell”— its crust and upper mantle, called the lithosphere — is broken into a
mosaic of about 12 plates. They move around and forcibly interact in a process called
plate tectonics. Earth appears unique in this regard.
As the Earth slowly cools, heat loss creates currents in the mantle that move the crustal
plates. On Earth, most tectonic landforms are created by forces that push, pull, and slide
tectonic plates. Mountain ranges, rift valleys, and long faults like the San Andreas in
California mark the borders of plates.

Impact
Impact craters come in all sizes and shapes, depending on the impacting object size,
impact angle, and surface into which the object crashes. Earth has impact craters all over
its surface. Vredefort basin in South Africa is the largest known impact crater on Earth. It is
more than 185 miles (300 kilometers) across.
Volcanism
Volcanic activity can may cause magma to erupt onto the surface to become lava. A
pyroclastic flow is a mix of hot ash, gases, and lava fragments that moves rapidly
downslope. This pyroclastic flow spilled down the flank of Popocatépetl in Mexico.

Volcanism & Erosion

Shiprock in New Mexico is a preserved core of a volcanic vent exposed by erosion. The
vent was active 30 million years ago. Several sheet-like lava intrusions called dikes, in the
foreground, radiate from the core on the left. Scientists have found evidence of volcanic
activity on all the rocky planets.

Erosion
Wind-blown sand has eroded parallel ridges into the bedrock in many places on Earth.
Scientists call these ridges yardangs. The yardang seen here is in the Lea-Yoakum Dunes
near Meadow, Texas.

Venus The Hottest Planet in Our Solar System

Venus is about the same size as Earth, but a very different planet. It rotates in a backward
direction, a characteristic it shares with Uranus. Venus is nearer the Sun than Earth and
has a very thick atmosphere, the surface temperature is extremely high, as much as 475°
Celsius (900° Fahrenheit).

Venus By the Numbers

 225 Earth days to orbit the Sun
 243 Earth days to complete one rotation
 0.7233 AU from the Sun
 0 natural satellites

Characteristics of Venus
Impact
Planets and moons across our solar system bear the scars of collisions. Impact craters
form on their surfaces when a dust particle, rock, asteroid, or comet smashes into them.
Impact craters come in all sizes and shapes, depending on the impacting object size,
impact angle, and surface into which the object crashes.
The surface of Venus is extremely hot. When an impact creates a crater, some of the
ejecta is hot and fluid. Flows of this molten material, called impact melt, can extend for
long distances, as shown by this radar image of Addams crater (54 miles/ 87 kilometers
across).

The Atmosphere
Venus has a very thick, hot, carbon dioxide atmosphere. Its surface pressure is more than
90 times that of Earth’s. Winds in the upper atmosphere of Venus travel 110–220 mph
(180 – 360 km/h).
An atmosphere can slow down an incoming object or melt it completely. The atmosphere
of Venus is so dense that some objects break apart and form clustered impact craters.

Tectonics
Earth has globalized plate tectonics. Venus does not. This is thought to be because of how
hot and dry the planet is. Instead, tectonics operate regionally, rather than through plates
that span the entire globe like Earth.This image shows elevation on Venus, with blue and
purple colors being the lowest elevations, and greens, yellows, and oranges being areas of
higher elevation.
Volcanism
Like Earth, volcanism also plays a role on Venus. Venus has a hot interior core surrounded
by hot mantles. One way these rocky worlds release interior heat is through volcanic
activity. This can involve molten rock, or magma, being forced into the crust. As the
interior cools, it shrinks, causing the crust to wrinkle like the skin of an apple as the core
dries and shrivels over time. Volcanism creates a variety of landforms, not just volcanoes,
depending on the properties of the lava (such as viscosity and composition) and on the
planetary environment (like gravity and presence of an atmosphere).
Venus displays the greatest diversity of volcanic features among the rocky worlds. Over
80% of Venus is covered by relatively young volcanic plains, less than 500 million years
old. The abundance of these plains suggests that Venus may have experienced
catastrophic volcanic events that caused lava to flood large parts of its surface.

Mercury The Swift Planet

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. It is known as the Swift Planet because of how
fast it travels through space—a whopping 29 miles per second (47 kilometers per second).
Because it is the fastest planet in our Solar System, and the closest to the Sun—and
therefore the shortest orbital path—it also has the shortest year of any planet in our Solar
System at just 88 days.

Mercury By the Numbers

 88 Earth days to orbit the Sun
 58.65 Earth days to complete one rotation
 0.3871 AU from the Sun
 0 natural satellites

Characteristics of Mercury
Impact
Planets and moons across our solar system bear the scars of collisions. Impact craters
form on their surfaces when a dust particle, rock, asteroid, or comet smashes into them.
Impact craters come in all sizes and shapes, depending on the impacting object size,
impact angle, and surface into which the object crashes.
Hokusai crater on Mercury is a typical complex impact crater. The center of a complex
crater often rebounds after impact, creating a central peak. In an impact basin, the central
peak sometimes collapses and forms a central ring.

Impact & Erosion

Erosion wears down landforms, but it also creates new ones. Planets with and without
atmospheres experience erosion, but by different geologic processes. On Mercury, a world
without wind or liquid water, impact cratering, caused by tiny, micrometeorite
bombardment of Mercury's surface erodes the landscape. These micrometeorites are
generated by the dust particles released from comets.

Tectonics
Although it is the smallest planet, Mercury has some of the largest fault scarps in our solar
system. The shrinking of its interior has forced its single-planet surface to contract,
creating fault scarps all over the planet. The largest is 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) long.
Tectonics Graben
When forces pull equally in all directions, fractures and graben develop in circular or
polygonal patterns. Shown here are circular and polygonal graben in lava plains that
buried an impact crater on Mercury. The circular graben outline the rim of the buried
“ghost crater.”

Volcanism
Like Earth, volcanism also plays a role on Mercury. Mercury has a hot interior core
surrounded by hot mantles. One way these rocky worlds release interior heat is through
volcanic activity. This can involve molten rock, or magma, being forced into the crust. As
the interior cools, it shrinks, causing the crust to wrinkle like the skin of an apple as the
core dries and shrivels over time. Volcanism creates a variety of landforms, not just
volcanoes, depending on the properties of the lava (such as viscosity and composition)
and on the planetary environment (like gravity and presence of an atmosphere).
The mosaic was assembled from individual images taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft as
it approached the planet. Visible in the mosaic are many lava-flooded craters and large
expanses of smooth volcanic plains, which appear similar in texture to volcanically
emplaced mare deposits on the Moon.

Ice
Mercury has concentrations of ice around its north and south poles. On Mercury some
impact crater floors near the poles are always in shadow. They stay very cold and have
accumulated water ice. Areas on Mercury that might have ice deposits are shown in
yellow.