In Depth | Earth's Moon – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBThe Moon makes a complete orbit around Earth in 27 Earth days and rotates or spins at that same rate, or in that same amount of time. Because Earth is moving as well – rotating on its axis as it orbits the Sun – from our perspective, the Moon appears to orbit us every 29 days. Structure. Structure. Earth's Moon has a core, mantle, and crust.
In Depth | Sun – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBSince the Sun is not solid, different parts rotate at different rates. At the equator, the Sun spins around once about every 25 Earth days, but at its poles, the Sun rotates once on its axis every 36 Earth days. Moons. As a star, the Sun doesn’t have any moons, but the planets and their moons orbit the Sun. Rings. Rings. The Sun would have ...
In Depth | Our Solar System – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBIntroduction. The planetary system we call home is located in an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity – the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets such as Pluto; dozens of moons; and millions of asteroids, comets, and …
In Depth | Earth – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBThe resulting chunks clumped together and formed our Moon. With a radius of 1,080 miles (1,738 kilometers), the Moon is the fifth largest moon in our solar system (after Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, and Io). The Moon is an average of 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) away from Earth. That means 30 Earth-sized planets could fit in between Earth ...
Planet Compare – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBOct 1, 2024 · NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system.
In Depth | Mercury – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBThe smallest planet in our solar system and nearest to the Sun, Mercury is only slightly larger than Earth's Moon. From the surface of Mercury, the Sun would appear more than three times as large as it does when viewed from Earth, and the sunlight would be as much as seven times brighter. Mercury's surface temperatures are both extremely hot ...
In Depth | Moons – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBTwelve American astronauts landed on the Moon during NASA's Apollo program from 1969 to 1972, studying the Moon and bringing back rock samples. Usually the term moon brings to mind a spherical object, like Earth's Moon. The two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, are different. While both have nearly circular orbits and travel close to the plane ...
In Depth | Venus – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBThe planet is nearly as big around as Earth – 7,521 miles (12,104 kilometers) across, versus 7,926 miles (12,756 kilometers) for Earth. From Earth, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky after our own Moon. The ancients, therefore, gave it great importance in their cultures, even thinking it was two objects: a morning star and an ...
In Depth | Titan – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBSaturn's largest moon, Titan, is an icy world whose surface is completely obscured by a golden hazy atmosphere. Titan is the second largest moon in our solar system. Only Jupiter's moon Ganymede is larger, by just 2 percent. Titan is bigger than Earth's moon, and larger than even the planet Mercury. This mammoth moon is the only moon in the ...
What is a Planet? | Planets – NASA Solar System Exploration
WEBBy the 17th century, astronomers (aided by the invention of the telescope) realized that the Sun was the celestial object around which all the planets—including Earth—orbit, and that the moon is not a planet, but a satellite (moon) of Earth. Uranus was added as a planet in 1781 and Neptune was discovered in 1846.