ScienceWikiExample

Mercury
Mercury is a heavily cratered planet. Its surface is similar to the surface of our Moon. Cratering on Mercury triggered volcanic eruptions that filled much of the surrounding area. The largest crater on Mercury is the Caloris Basin which is 800 miles (1,300 km) across. It may have been formed by as asteroid hitting Mercury. Many of the craters on Mercury have been named for writers, musicians, painters, and other artists.

Venus
Venus is the second planet from the sun in our solar system. It is the hottest planet in our Solar System. This planet is covered with fast-moving sulphuric acid clouds which trap heat from the Sun. Its thick atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide. Venus has an iron core but only a very weak magnetic field.

This is a planet on which a person would asphyxiate in the poisonous atmosphere, be cooked in the extremely high heat, and be crushed by the enormous atmospheric pressure.

Earth
The Earth is the third planet from the Sun in our Solar System. It is the planet we evolved on and the only planet in our Solar System that is known to support life.

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Mars
The surface of Mars is dry, rocky, and mostly covered with iron-rich dust. There are low-lying plains in the northern hemisphere, but the southern hemisphere is dotted with impact craters. The ground is frozen; this permafrost extends for several kilometers.

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Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth and largest planet in our solar system. This gas giant has a thick atmosphere, 39 known moons, and a dark, barely-visible ring. Its most prominent features are bands across its latitudes and a great red spot (which is a storm).

Jupiter is composed mostly of gas. This enormous planet radiates twice as much heat as it absorbs from the Sun. It also has an extremely strong magnetic field. It is slightly flattened at its poles and it bulges out a bit at the equator.

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Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun in our solar system. It is the second-largest planet in our solar system (Jupiter is the largest). It has beautiful rings that are made mostly of ice chunks (and some rock) that range in size from the size of a fingernail to the size of a car. Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen and helium gas.

Saturn is visible without using a telescope, but a low-power telescope is needed to see its rings.

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Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun in our solar system. This huge, icy planet is covered with clouds and is encircled by a belt of 11 rings and 22 known moons. Uranus' blue color is caused by the methane (CH4) in its atmosphere; this molecule absorbs red light.

Neptune
Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun in our solar system. This giant, frigid planet has a hazy atmosphere and strong winds. This gas giant is orbited by eight moons and narrow, faint rings arranged in clumps. Neptune's blue color is caused by the methane (CH4) in its atmosphere; this molecule absorbs red light.

Neptune cannot be seen using the eyes alone. Neptune was the first planet whose existence was predicted mathematically (the planet Uranus's orbit was perturbed by an unknown object which turned our to be another gas giant, Neptune). **SIZE** Neptune is about 30,775 miles (49,528 km) in diameter. This is 3.88 times the diameter of the Earth. If Neptune were hollow, it could hold almost 60 Earths.

Neptune is the fourth largest planet in our Solar System (after Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus). == ==

Pluto
Pluto is a dwarf planet (or plutoid) that usually orbits past the orbit of Neptune. It was classified as a dwarf planet in 2006; before that it was considered to be a planet, the smallest planet in our solar system. Pluto is smaller than a lot of the other planets' moons, including our moon. Pluto is the only "planet" in our solar system that has not been visited by our spacecraft yet. We only have blurry pictures of its surface; even the Hubble Space Telescope orbiting the Earth can only get grainy photos because Pluto is so far from us. In 2015, a spacecraft called New Horizons (launched by NASA in 2006) will visit Pluto.

== == ==Easy ways to remember the order of the planets (and Pluto) are the mnemonics: "My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas" and "My Very Easy Method Just Simplifies Us Naming Planets" The first letter of each of these words represents a planet - in the correct order.==