Interesting Unknown Facts About the Planets

Mercury

• Time moves very slowly on Mercury because its close proximity to the Sun has slowed its rotation so much that one day is equivalent to around 58.5 days on Earth. It is also an unknown fact that Mercury is a wrinkly planet. Around three-quarters of the planet itself is its iron core which has cooled and shrunk over time, causing its thin, rocky crust to wrinkle.

Venus

• Even though Venus is only the second-closest planet to the Sun, it is the hottest in the solar system because clouds of sulphuric acid, mercury and ferric chloride hydrocarbons surround the planet, trapping the little light and heat that filters through to the surface. Venus's chemical clouds produce the solar system's most corrosive acid rain.

Earth

• Earth is the only planet which has an outer crust of moving tectonic plates floating on a magma interior. Plate tectonics is one method through which the Earth recycles carbon and prevents the planet from overheating.

Mars

• The solar system's largest mountain, Olympus Mons, and largest canyon system, Valles Marineris, are on Mars. Another unknown fact is that scientists predict that Phobos, one of the planet's two moons, will crash into Mars within the next 50 years.

Jupiter

• Although Jupiter is a massive planet, its magnetic field is disproportionate to its size, stretching millions of miles into space. In fact, this field is so strong and far reaching that each day it sends billions of watts of electricity into Earth's own magnetic field situated 365 million miles away.

Saturn

• Even though Saturn is quite large, it is the least dense of all of the solar system's planets due to its make-up: mostly hydrogen and helium. Another largely unknown fact about Saturn is that the planet radiates more energy than it actually receives from the Sun.

Uranus

• The orbit of Uranus around the Sun takes 84 Earth years, which means that the planet's poles experience daylight for 42 years followed by 42 years of darkness. Most people are also unaware than Uranus was the first planet to be discovered by using a telescope.

Neptune

• The dwarf planet Pluto's orbit is elliptical and cuts across Neptune's, which means that at times Neptune is actually farther away from the sun than Pluto. Neptune's weather is the most violent of the solar system's planets, constantly experiencing storms and freezing winds which are around ten times stronger than the most severe hurricane on Earth.