Ben



The first four inner planets closest to the sun are known as the 'Rocky Planets' these planets are much, much smaller than there counterparts the Gas Giants. The Rocky Planets are obviously made out of rock. These planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars; all of these planets are behind the Astroid Belt.

Mercury [[image:http://www.wwu.edu/depts/skywise/planets/mercury.jpg width="232" height="261" align="right"]]
Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, is now the smalllest planet in the Solar System as Pluto was excluded, it's 3/8 the size of Earth with a diameter of 4878 km. Mercury is just bare rock and has an appearence of a bare grey rock. It takes 88 Earth days for it to orbit the sun, and takes a whopping 58 Earth days for just one Mercury day! Mercury is the god of trade and profit.

VENUS

Venus is second to the sun, but the hottest. Why is Mercury not hotter even though its closer? Because Venus's atmosphere is very thick and all heat that produced by the sun is locked in by all the clouds and atmosphere, it's known as the greenhouse effect and may happened to Earth.

Venus gets the nickname along with Earth as the 'Twin Planets' as they are similar in size and weight. Amazingly Venus's day goes for longer than its year! As it takes 213 Earth days for Venus to orbit the sun, and 225 Earth days to one whole Venus day! Venus is the Roman god of Love and Beauty. Because of Venus's incredibly thick carbon dioxide atmosphere it gives Venus a light yellow appearance.

Earth

What is the only planet not named after Roman/Greek mythology? Answer, Earth.

It takes 365.25 days for for Earth to orbit the sun, every four years it takes 366 days we know this as a leap year, one day is 24 hours. Earth is a bluey green colour and is the only planet to know that has life.

Mars

Mars, most people think of Mars as a planet that may be the key to mankind's extinction. There has been discussion of life on Mars.

Mars is also known as the 'Red Planet' obviously because it's red! Mars is the messenger of the Gods and also the god of war, many believe due to it's red colour Mars got its name after war. Mars is the second smallest planet in the Solar System only smaller to Mercury and is fourth from the sun. A year on Mars takes 687 Earth days, but a day on Mars only takes 37 more minutes then a day on Earth.

This images shows the sizes of the rocky planets to the Gas Giants, the rocky planets are the ones in between the sun and the astroid belt, the astroid belt are the line of little rocks.