The INNER Planets
MERCURY / VENUS / EARTH / MARSSize and Composition / Small
Solid
Rocky / Small
Solid
Rocky / Small
Solid
Rocky / Small
Solid
Rocky
Atmosphere / No true atmosphere / Dense clouds of mostly carbon dioxide, droplets of sulfuric acid / Nitrogen
Oxygen
Other gases / Thin
Carbon dioxide
Nitrogen and argon
Temperatures / Great extremes
425º C in day
-170ºC at night / Greenhouse effect
470ºC / Allow water to exist as solid, liquid, and gas / -125ºC to 35ºC
Surface Features / Craters
High cliffs
Moon like surface / Craters
Cracks
volcanoes with lava / Oceans
Land masses
Polar ice caps / Reddish-yellow rocks
Rifts, craters, channels, volcanoes, polar ice caps
Moons / 1 / 2: Phobos, Deimos
Space Probes / Mariner 10 / Mariner 2
Venera 7
Magellan / / Mariner 9
Viking 1 & 2
Mars Surveyor
Mars Pathfinder
The Outer Planets
JUPITER(5th from Sun) / SATURN
(6th from Sun) / URANUS
(7th from Sun) / NEPTUNE
(8th from Sun)
Size and Composition / Large
Gaseous / Large
Gaseous / Large
Gaseous / Large
Gaseous
Atmosphere / hydrogen
helium, ammonia, methane, water vapor / hydrogen
helium, ammonia, methane, water vapor / hydrogen
helium
methane / hydrogen
helium
methane
Below the Atmosphere / ocean of liquid hydrogen and helium, maybe a core of ice and rock / liquid hydrogen and helium, maybe a core of ice and rock / liquid water
methane
ammonia
rocky core / liquid water
methane
ammonia
rocky core
Notable Features / White, tan, red, brown clouds, (Great Red Spot), feint rings / Hundreds of rings, lowest density of all planets / Thin dark rings, blue-green color, sideways rotation / Blue-green color, storms in atmosphere, rings with gases
Moons / At least 16: Io, Europa, Ganymede, Castillo / 18 : Titan / 18, maybe 21 / 8: Triton
Space Probes / Voyager 1 & 2 / Voyager 1& 2 / Voyager 2 / Voyager 2