🧠 The Solar System Quiz

Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System and races round the Sun faster than any other planet.

Venus's thick carbon dioxide atmosphere traps heat so effectively that it is hotter than Mercury, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun.

Earth's Moon is the only natural satellite our planet has, and it is the reason we see tides and eclipses.

William Herschel discovered Uranus from Bath, becoming the first person to find a planet unknown to the ancients.

Olympus Mons is roughly two and a half times the height of Mount Everest above sea level, and its gentle slopes make it a shield volcano.

Io is squeezed by Jupiter's gravity and its neighbouring moons, and that tidal heating powers hundreds of erupting volcanoes.

Ceres is the only dwarf planet in the inner Solar System, and Dawn found bright salt deposits inside its craters.

Eris is named after the Greek goddess of strife, a fitting name given the argument its discovery sparked over what counts as a planet.

Triton orbits Neptune in the opposite direction to the planet's rotation, a key clue that it formed elsewhere and was captured.

Enceladus's icy plumes, which erupt from fractures near its south pole, replenish Saturn's faint E ring and hint at a hidden subsurface ocean.