Planets in Order: Navigating the Solar System's Harmony

The right way to remember the planets in order is to make a funny sentence, a mnemonic, or the order of planets rhyme.

It would help you recall quickly and effectively.

There are many already made, and we have some interesting ones for you:

• My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Noodles/ Nachos
• Mercury’s Volcanoes Erupt Mulberry Jam Sandwiches Until Night.
• Very Elderly Men Just Snore Under Newspapers.
• My Very Efficient Memory Just Summed Up Nine.
• My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Names.

Pluto was ‘plutoed’ in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). It reconsidered the definition of a planet and declared that to be considered a planet, a celestial body has to meet the following criteria:

• It must be a celestial body other than a natural satellite (moon) that orbits the Sun.
  
  
• It is smaller than the planet Mercury yet large enough for gravity to have rounded its shape substantially.
  
  
• It has “cleared the neighbourhood” around its orbit.
  
  
• Pluto could not meet the last standard and thus got downgraded from a planet to a dwarf planet.

Surprise, surprise. It is Venus, not Mercury. Sure, Mercury is closer to the Sun, but Venus has a thick atmosphere full of greenhouse gasses, carbon dioxide, and sulfuric acid clouds. Such an atmosphere traps heat, making it feel like a furnace on the surface.

More dwarf planets have been discovered beyond Pluto. These include Eris, Haumea, Sedna, Orcus, Quaoar, Varuna, and Makemake.

Mercury holds that title. In addition to being the closest to the Sun, it is the smallest planet, only a bit larger than Earth’s moon.

The coldest planet in our solar system is, of course, Uranus. It is about 20 times further away from the Sun than the Earth. The lowest temperature recorded on Uranus was minus 224 degrees Celsius. Even though Neptune is further away from the Sun, scientists believe that because there is more methane in Neptune’s atmosphere than in Uranus’s, Neptune tends to be warmer than Uranus.

Venus is often called “Earth’s twin” because it is similar in size and structure. But that is where the similarities end. Venus, not Mercury, is the hottest planet in the solar system. It is because Venus has a dense and toxic atmosphere.

Our solar system has many mysteries. There has been evidence that a Neptune-sized planet orbits the Sun in an elongated orbit beyond Pluto. The researchers have nicknamed it Planet Nine.

Astronomers have found another planet that is the next star system. “Proxima d” is the third planet seen orbiting Proxima Centauri.

Venus shines in the skies early in the morning or in the evenings. It is because the second planet from the Sun is also the brightest.

Don’t let the red colour fool you! Mars is a pretty ‘cool’ planet. Since its atmosphere is relatively thin, the Sun’s heat escapes, leaving the planet cold.

There is no ‘twelfth planet’ in the order of the planets from the sun. At least not yet. The conjecture of a twelfth planet began in 1976 when Zecharia Sitchin wrote “The Twelfth Planet.” The book had his translation of Sumerian cuneiform to identify a planet, Nibiru, orbiting the Sun every 3,600 years. Many believed that it would appear and collide with Earth. But that never happened! There is no scientific fact to prove that Nibiru exists.