Articles About Planets (20)

What do astronomers really mean when they use those technical terms?

Learn how to use altitude (elevation) and azimuth angles to locate any object in the sky, such as stars, planets, satellites, the Sun, or the Moon.

When Mercury transits the Sun, you can see it as a tiny black dot silhouetted against the Sun's disk.

The 2012 Venus transit was the last chance to see this phenomenon for over 100 years. Mercury transits happen more often, the next one in 2032.

From time to time, some of the planets in our solar system are in conjunction and become visible together in the sky.

Two astronomical bodies appear to meet in the sky—but it’s an illusion.

The ecliptic is the name given to the path the Sun follows through the stars and constellations over the course of a year.

Our Moon is the 5th-largest of the more than 200 moons in the solar system.

A gravity assist maneuver is where a planet helps a spacecraft gain or lose speed.

In December 2020, Jupiter and Saturn met in the sky in a rare Great Conjunction.

A celestial body needs to pass three tests to be called a planet.

Everything that orbits the Sun is part of the solar system.

Mars is the outermost of the Solar System’s small inner planets.

There is much that is similar—and much that is different—between Venus and Earth.

Earth is the largest of the Solar System’s rocky inner planets.

Saturn is easily visible with the naked eye, although a small telescope is required to see its rings.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It was the first “new” planet to be discovered.

Mercury, which is made mostly of iron, is the smallest planet, and the closest to the Sun.

Jupiter is fifth in line from the Sun, and the largest planet in the solar system.

Neptune is too far away to be seen with the naked eye, but a good pair of binoculars can capture it.