Interesting facts about space, galaxies, planets, moons and other solar system objects. Explore the universe through interesting diagrams, photos and more!

Facts about the Planets. Mercury’s craters are named after famous artists, musicians and authors. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system. Earth’s atmosphere protects us from meteoroids and radiation from the Sun. There have been more missions to Mars than any other planet. Jupiter has more than double the mass of all the other ...

The initial “glow” of the Big Bang can be seen throughout space today as the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). Because the universe has now expanded out beyond 13.7 billion light-years, there are areas we will never be able to detect. They are beyond our “visual horizon”.

Facts about Saturn. Saturn is the most distant planet that can be seen with the naked eye. It is the fifth brightest object in the solar system and is also easily studied through binoculars or a small telescope. Saturn was known to the ancients, including the …

Facts about the Sun. The Sun is all the colours mixed together, this appears white to our eyes. The Sun is composed of hydrogen (70%) and Helium (28%). The Sun is a main-sequence G2V star (or Yellow Dwarf). The Sun is 109 times wider than the Earth and 330,000 times as massive. The Sun’s surface area is 11,990 times that of the Earth’s.

Facts about the Solar System. See the planets and the dwarf planets pages for more information or click an image below to find out more about the solar system’s structure:

Facts about Neptune. Neptune is the most distant planet from the Sun. Neptune is the smallest gas giant. A year on Neptune lasts 165 Earth years. Neptune is named after the Roman god of the sea. Neptune has 6 faint rings. Neptune was not known to the ancients. It is not visible to the naked eye and was first observed in 1846.

Facts about Venus. Venus does not have any moons or rings. Venus is nearly as big as the Earth with a diameter of 12,104 km. Venus is thought to be made up of a central iron core, rocky mantle and silicate crust. A day on the surface of Venus (solar day) would appear to take 117 Earth days. A year on Venus takes 225 Earth days.

Facts About Stars There are 9,096 stars visible to the naked eye in the entire sky. To see more, you have to use a telescope to reveal stars fainter than your eyes can see.

Facts about Mercury. Mercury does not have any moons or rings. Mercury is the smallest planet. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. Your weight on Mercury would be 38% of your weight on Earth. A solar day on the surface of Mercury lasts 176 Earth days. A year on Mercury takes 88 Earth days. It’s not known who discovered Mercury.