Lessons / Space

Solar System Map

See the order of the planets, then convert Earth days into each planet's own day and year. Every number comes from NASA's planetary fact sheets.

Planet order and sizes Two kinds of day Earth days into planet days and years

Pro

Solar system map

Pick a planet, drag time, or press Play

Seen from above Earth's north pole · planet dots not to scale

All eight go the same way round Orbit path The planet you picked Orbit spacing is even here, not to scale — each label shows the real distance in AU

Speed 25 d/s

Earth days 0 d

Jump to Earth days, or

Orbit spacing

Show

Tap a planet on the map to pick it. The readout follows whichever planet you pick.

How big is each planet?

Here the sizes are to scale with each other and with the slice of the Sun on the left — the Sun is about 109 Earths across. Distances are not shown.

Readout

Conversions and facts

Live readout

Earth days (sim)0 d Earth years0.000 Days on Earth0.00 Years on Earth0.000

Earth

Kind of planetRocky planet Distance from Sun1.00 AU Diameter12,756 km Year (one orbit)365.26 d Day, one spin23.93 h Day, Sun to Sun24.00 h Spin directionForward Axis tilt23.4° Orbit shapeAlmost a circle

What you're learning

Order. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. The first four are small and rocky. Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants, made mostly of hydrogen and helium. Uranus and Neptune are ice giants: they hold a lot more water, ammonia and methane.

AU (astronomical unit) is the average Earth–Sun distance, 149,598,000 km. Neptune sits about 30 AU out.
Year = one full trip around the Sun. The farther out a planet is, the longer its year.
Day, one spin (a sidereal day) is how long the planet takes to turn once.
Day, Sun to Sun (a solar day) is how long from one noon to the next. It is different, because the planet moves along its orbit while it spins.
All eight travel the same way round the Sun: counterclockwise seen from above Earth's north pole.
Every orbit is an ellipse, but all eight are close to circles, so this map draws them as circles.

Practice

Order, kinds of planet, distance, days and years

Question

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You score a point for getting it right first try. A wrong pick explains itself, then you can try again.