Planets and Dwarf Planets

From Mercury to Pluto, the planets, and now dwarf planets, of our solar system display a wide variety of characteristics. The following resources are meant to provide some basic information about the similarities and differences of the eight planets and two dwarf planets.

The following Quick Facts articles provide some basic information about the planets and newly designated dwarf planets.

• Quick Facts About the Planet Mercury
• Quick Facts About the Planet Venus
• Quick Facts About the Planet Earth
• Quick Facts About the Planet Mars
• Quick Facts About the Dwarf Planet Ceres
• Quick Facts About the Planet Jupiter
• Quick Facts About the Planet Saturn
• Quick Facts About the Planet Uranus
• Quick Facts About the Planet Neptune
• Quick Facts About the Dwarf Planet Pluto

Other resources related to the solar system and its planets are

Solar System Scale Modeler

A Java applet for generating the data necessary to create scale models of the solar system.

Scale Model of the Earth, Moon, Mars, Phobos, Deimos

An article and graphic that illustrates the scale of the Earth and Mars with respect to their moons.

Need someone to talk about space to your group? Check out the Chicago Society for Space Studies Speakers Bureau

For space art, astronomy, and digital photography stories, visit the Artsnova Blog

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