Standard Form Fastest Planet

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STANDARD FORM PLANETS FASTEST PLANET
Click a planet to find out more about it. Click
the title to start the activity.
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The Sun is a star. It contains more than 99.8
of the total mass in the Solar System, with
Jupiter having most of the rest. It is about
4,500 million years old and will probably stay
almost the same for another 5,000 million years
before "dying". All the energy from the Sun is
produced in the core by nuclear fusion. It
takes about 50 million years for this energy to
make its way out to the surface! And then about
another 8 minutes for the light to reach the
Earth.
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Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. It is
quite similar to the Moon, with lots of craters,
but it has no moon of its own. Mercury was the
Roman god of travel, and the planet probably got
its name because it moves so fast across the sky.
Only one spacecraft, Mariner 10, has been to
Mercury. It flew-by in 1973 and 1974, but only
mapped about half of the surface, shown here.
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Venus is the second planet out from the Sun. It
is the brightest object in the night sky other
than the Moon. The first spacecraft to visit
Venus was Mariner 2 in 1962, but more than 20
have been in total so far. The planet is
covered in very thick cloud. The surface can only
be seen using Radar. The temperature at the
surface is very high (up to 460 C). This is
because it has a very strong Greenhouse Effect.
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Earth is the third planet out from the Sun. It
has one very large natural satellite, the Moon.
About 70 of the surface is covered in water.
It is the only planet known to have life on it.

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Mars is the fourth planet out from the Sun, one
further out than Earth Sometimes called "the
Red Planet", it gets its colour from its red
rocks and soil. The surface changes from winter
to summer. This was thought to be evidence for
plants and other life, but is now known to be
enormous dust storms that cover most of the
planet. Many spacecraft have been sent to Mars
and some, like the Mars Rover missions in 2003,
have even landed on the surface, making it the
most well known planet in the Solar System other
than the Earth itself! It has two small moons
called Phobos and Deimos.
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Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar
System You could fit all the other planets
inside it at the same time and still have room
left! It is a Gas Giant, this means that is
does not have a solid surface, but is a huge ball
of gas. What we see is the top of the highest
clouds. The famous Red Spot (shown to the
right) is a single giant storm, first seen over
300 years ago and still going strong! Jupiter
was the Roman King of the Gods. As of May 2005,
Jupiter is known to have 63 moons.The largest
four (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) were
discovered in 1610 by Galileo.
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Saturn is the second largest planet in the Solar
System after Jupiter. Like Jupiter, it is a Gas
Giant and so does not have a solid surface. It
is famous for its dramatic and beautiful rings.
The rings are not solid, but are made up of many
millions of small lumps of ice and rock, varying
from a few centimetres to several metres across.
These are all orbiting around Saturn together.
Although they look very impressive, the rings
are only about 1 km thick, compared to 250,000 km
in diameter! As of July 2007, Saturn is known
to have at least 60 moons (more than any other
planet). The largest, Titan, is larger than both
Mercury and Pluto.
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Uranus, like Jupiter and Saturn, is a Gas Giant
and does not have a solid surface. However, it
is blue not yellow/orange because it has
different chemicals at the top of the clouds
because it is colder. Uranus has rings, like
Saturn, but they are much thinner and difficult
to see. Uranus was the first planet to be
discovered in modern times (by William Herschel
in 1781). Uranus has 27 known moons (as of May
2005). 22 are very small and most are close to
Uranus. The other five (Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel,
Titania and Oberon) are larger and further out.
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Neptune is a blue Gas Giant like Uranus and is
named after the Roman God of the Sea. The dark
spot in the image here is a storm like the Great
Red Spot on Jupiter. However, the blue storm here
has probably already disappeared. Neptunes
winds are the fastest known on any planet,
getting as fast as 2000 km per hour. Neptune
has twelve small moons and one large one called
Triton. Until recently, Neptune was the most
distant planet from the Sun, and had been since
1979, but Pluto's orbit crossed Neptunes' on the
11th February 1999 to return to being the most
distant planet.
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Which is the fastest planet?
Planet Orbit Radius (distance from Sun) Length of
Year Mercury 5.791 107 km 88 Earth
days Venus 1.082 108 km 225 Earth
days Earth 1.496 108 km 365.25 Earth
days Mars 2.2794 108 km 687 Earth
days Jupiter 7.7833 108 km 11.9 Earth
years Saturn 1.4294 109 km 29.45 Earth
years Uranus 2.871 109 km 84.01 Earth
years Neptune 4.5043 109 km 164.79 Earth
years
Calculate the speed of each planet in kilometres
per second. Assume the planets orbit the sun in a
circular path. Use 3 significant figures in your
calculations
Hint
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