There are ten officially recognised planets in our solar system. Listed in order from the nearest to the furthest from our Sun they are:

• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus
• Neptune
• Pluto

The tenth planet was discovered in 2003 and has been temporarily named as 2003 UB313.

Mercury

The evening star is actually a planet, usually Mercury or Venus, when seen in the western sky just after sunset.

Because it takes Mercury 59 days to complete a full rotation, but only 88 days to orbit the Sun, this planet has less than 2 days per year.

Apart from the Earth, Mercury is more dense than any other planet in the solar system.

Venus

With temperatures of up to 860 degrees Fahrenheit, Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system!

Because it has a similar size and mass to Earth, Venus is referred to as our 'sister planet'.

Venus is the brightest planet in the sky and it can often be seen with the naked eye.

Mars

A Mars day is 24 hours, 37 minutes, 23 seconds long.

Mars is home to the largest volcano in our solar system. 'Olympus Mons' is approximately 27km high and has a crater that is 81km wide.

Jupiter

A Jupiter day is 9 hours, 55 minutes long.

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system.

The surface gravity of Jupiter is 2.6 times greater than Earth.

Saturn

Saturn has the lowest density of any other planet in the solar system.

The surface gravity of Saturn is 1.159.

Uranus

Uranus is unique among the planets in that it's equitorial plane is almost perpendicular to the orbital plane, which means that it virtually spins on it's side.

Neptune

Neptune was discoverd in 1846, but we have yet to see it complete a full orbit of the Sun because this event takes 165 years.

Pluto

While Pluto is often regarded as the ninth furthest planet from the sun, occasionally it's orbit makes it closer than Neptune. The last time this happened was between Sept 1989 and February 1999.