Animation of the relative sizes of the planets compared to the Sun, in order of their size. The animation starts with the smallest planet, Mercury, with a diameter of 4880 kilometres (km). Next is Mars, at 6792km. Venus is next, with a diameter of 12, 100km. Venus is often considered a sister planet to Earth, as our planet is only slightly larger, at 12, 742km. These four planets are all relatively close to the Sun, and are all largely made of rock. The next largest planet after Earth is the distant ice giant Neptune, some 49, 500km across, and composed mostly of gas and ices. Its sister planet Uranus is only slightly larger, at just over 51, 000km. After these two ice giants comes the gas giant Saturn, just over 120, 500km across. The largest planet in the solar system is Jupiter, some 143, 000 kilometres across at the equator. Jupiter is also by far the most massive planet, 318 times the mass of the Earth, and 2.5 times the mass of all the other planets combined. The Sun dwarfs all the planets, having 1000 times Jupiter's mass, and a diameter of 1, 392, 000km. |