This view is one of the first from the MESSENGER probe's Oct.

6, 2008 flyby
of Mercury.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/CIW

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. As such, it circles the sun faster than
all the other planets, which is why Romans named it after their swift-footed
messenger god.

The Sumerians also knew of Mercury since at least 5,000 years ago. It was
often associated with Nabu, the god of writing. Mercury was also given
separate names for its appearance as both a morning star and as an evening
star. Greek astronomers knew, however, that the two names referred to the
same body, and Heraclitus, around 500 B.C., correctly thought that both
Mercury

Credit: NASA

Venus, the second planet from the sun, is named for the Roman goddess of
love and beauty. The planet the only planet named after a female may
have been named for the most beautiful deity of her pantheon because it
shone the brightest of the five planets known to ancient astronomers.

In ancient times, Venus was often thought to be two different stars, the
evening star and the morning star that is, the ones that first appeared at
sunset and sunrise. In Latin, they were respectively known as Vesper and
Lucifer. In Christian times, Lucifer, or "light-bringer," became known as the
name of Satan before his fall. However, further observations of Venus in the
space age show a very hellish environment. This makes Venus a very difficult
planet to observe from up close, because spacecraft do not survive long on
its surface.
 Physical characteristics
Venus and Earth are often called twins because they are similar in size,
mass, density, composition and gravity. However, the similarities end there.
[Photos: Venus, the Mysterious Planet Next Door]

Planet Earth: Facts About Its Orbit,

Atmosphere & Size
By Charles Q. Choi, Space.com Contributor | December 11, 2014 10:49pm ET
12
2

MORE
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope snapped this shot of Mars on Aug. 26, 2003,
when the Red Planet was 34.7 million miles from Earth. The picture was
 taken just 11 hours before Mars made its closest approach to us in 60,000
years.
Credit: NASA/ESA

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. Befitting the red planet's bloody color,
the Romans named it after their god of war. The Romans copied the ancient
Greeks, who also named the planet after their god of war, Ares. Other
civilizations also typically gave the planet names based on its color for
example, the Egyptians named it "Her Desher," meaning "the red one," while
ancient Chinese astronomers dubbed it "the fire star."

Physical characteristics
The bright rust color Mars is known for is due to iron-rich minerals in its
regolith the loose dust and rock covering its surface. The soil of Earth is a
kind of regolith, albeit one loaded with organic content. According to NASA,
the iron minerals oxidize, or rust, causing the soil to look red.
The cold, thin atmosphere means liquid water likely cannot exist on the
Martian surface for any length of time. Features called recurring slope lineae
may have spurts of briny water flowing on the surface, but this evidence is
disputed; some scientists argue the hydrogen spotted from orbit in this
region may instead indicate briny salts. This means that although this desert
planet is just half the diameter of Earth, it has the same amount of dry land.
A

Planet Jupiter: Facts About Its Size,

Moons and Red Spot
By Charles Q. Choi, Space.com Contributor | September 18, 2017 11:28pm ET
148
24

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This photo of Jupiter was taken on Sept. 20, 2010 when Jupiter made its
closest approach to Earth since 1963. (Uranus [insert] was visible through
telescopes near Jupiter.)
Credit: Jimmy Eubanks
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. Fittingly, it was named after
the king of the gods in Roman mythology. In a similar manner, the ancient
Greeks named the planet after Zeus, the king of the Greek pantheon.

Jupiter helped revolutionize the way we saw the universe and ourselves in
1610, when Galileo discovered Jupiter's four large moons Io, Europa,
Ganymede and Callisto, now known as the Galilean moons. This was the first
time that celestial bodies were seen circling an object other than Earth,
major support of the Copernican view that Earth was not the center of the
universe.

Physical characteristics
Jupiter is the most massive planet in our solar system, more than twice as
massive as all the other planets combined, and had it been about 80 times
more massive, it would have actually become a

Credit: NASA/JPL
 Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun and the second largest planet in the
solar system. Saturn was the Roman name for Cronus, the lord of the Titans
in Greek mythology. Saturn is the root of the English word "Saturday."

Saturn is the farthest planet from Earth visible to the naked human eye, but
it is through a telescope that the planet's most outstanding features can be
seen: Saturn's rings. Although the other gas giants in the solar system
Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune also have rings, those of Saturn are without a
doubt the most extraordinary.

Planet Saturn: Facts About Saturn's

Rings, Moons & Size
By Charles Q. Choi, Space.com Contributor | November 8, 2017 07:20am ET
18
3

Uranus tilt essentially has the planet orbiting the Sun on its side, the axis of
its spin is nearly pointing at the Sun.
Credit: NASA and Erich Karkoschka, U. of Arizona

Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and the first to be discovered by
scientists. Although Uranus is visible to the naked eye, it was long mistaken
as a star because of the planet's dimness and slow orbit. The planet is also
notable for its dramatic tilt, which causes its axis to point nearly directly at
the sun.
Neptunes winds travel at more than 1,500 mph, and are the fastest
planetary winds in the solar system.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun. It was the first planet to get its
existence predicted by mathematical calculations before it was actually seen
through a telescope on Sept. 23, 1846. Irregularities in the orbit
of Uranus led French astronomer Alexis Bouvard to suggest that the
gravitational pull from another celestial body might be responsible. German
astronomer Johann Galle then relied on subsequent calculations to help spot
Neptune via telescope. Previously, astronomer Galileo Galilei sketched the
planet, but he mistook it for a star due to its slow

A wide view of Pluto taken by the New Horizons space probe in July 2015.

Credit: NASA/APL/SwRI
Pluto, once considered the ninth and most distant planet from the sun, is
now the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system. It is also one of the
largest known members of the Kuiper Belt, a shadowy zone beyond the orbit
of Neptune thought to be populated by hundreds of thousands of rocky, icy
bodies each larger than 62 miles (100 kilometers) across, along with 1 trillion
or more comets.