Space Facts

The Sun makes up 99.8% of all the mass in the solar system.

About 1.3 million Earths could fit inside the Sun.

Light from the Sun takes 8 minutes 20 seconds to reach Earth.

Jupiter is more than twice as massive as all other planets combined.

Saturn has 274 confirmed moons — the most of any planet.

Neptune's winds can exceed 2,000 km/h, the fastest in the solar system.

Hottest planet: Venus at 464 °C — hotter than Mercury despite being farther from the Sun.

Coldest planet: Uranus at −224 °C, even though Neptune is farther away.

Tallest volcano: Olympus Mons on Mars — 2.5× the height of Everest.

Largest moon: Ganymede (Jupiter) — bigger than the planet Mercury.

Shortest day: Jupiter at just 9.9 hours.

Longest year: Neptune at 165 Earth years per orbit.

Venus spins backwards — the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

A day on Venus (243 Earth days) is longer than its year (225 Earth days).

Saturn is so light it would float in water (if you had a big enough bathtub).

Mars sunsets are blue because fine dust particles scatter light differently.

Uranus rolls around the Sun on its side, tilted 98 degrees.

Pluto's heart-shaped glacier is a slowly churning sea of nitrogen ice.