Sol · Body reference

Eleven bodies,
one table

The Sun, the eight planets and the Moon, each with the size, spin, gravity, field and atmosphere the renderer works from.

Figures: NASA Planetary Fact Sheets · IAU WGCCRE 2015 (Archinal et al. 2018)

The Sun as a full orange disc, mottled with active regions and a flare at the limb

A G2V main-sequence star; luminosity 3.828×10²⁶ W. Rotates differentially (~25 d equator, ~34 d poles). Surface granulation, sunspots, an X-ray corona at ~1–3 MK, and a continuous solar wind.

The star

The Sun

Radius: 695,700 km
Mass: 1.9885×10³⁰ kg — 332,950 Earths
Surface gravity: 274.0 m/s²
Rotation: 25.38 d (Carrington sidereal)
Axial tilt: 7.25°
Effective temperature: 5,772 K — 5,499 °C
Composition: H₂ plasma — 73% H, 25% He by mass
Escape velocity: 617.5 km/s

Mercury as a full grey disc, densely cratered from pole to pole — Global mosaic. NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Carnegie Institution.

Airless, heavily cratered, 3:2 spin–orbit resonance. A weak global dipole — surface field ~1% of Earth's, dipole moment ~0.06% — sustains a small magnetosphere.

First planet from the Sun

Mercury

Equatorial radius: 2,439.7 km
Mass: 3.301×10²³ kg — 0.055 Earths
Surface gravity: 3.70 m/s²
Rotation: 58.65 d — 3:2 with its year
Axial tilt: 0.034°
Mean temperature: 440 K — 167 °C
Atmosphere: Trace exosphere — O, Na, H, He, K
Magnetic field: 0.0006× Earth's dipole

Venus as a full ochre disc, its surface picked out in radar — Radar surface, colourised. NASA/JPL-Caltech.

A runaway greenhouse: 92 bar of CO₂, 737 K surface. Rotates retrograde once per 243 days — slower than its year. No intrinsic magnetic field (only an induced one).

Second planet from the Sun

Venus

Equatorial radius: 6,051.8 km
Mass: 4.867×10²⁴ kg — 0.815 Earths
Surface gravity: 8.87 m/s²
Rotation: 243.02 d, retrograde
Axial tilt: 177.36° — effectively upside down
Mean temperature: 737 K — 464 °C
Atmosphere: 92 bar — 96.5% CO₂, 3.5% N₂
Magnetic field: None intrinsic — induced only

Earth as a full disc: Africa, Europe and the Indian Ocean under scattered cloud — Full disc, sunlit face. NASA.

Liquid-water oceans, a nitrogen–oxygen atmosphere, and a strong dipole field (the reference, 8×10²² A·m²) driving a protective magnetosphere and aurorae.

Third planet from the Sun

Earth

Equatorial radius: 6,378.1 km — polar 6,356.8
Mass: 5.9722×10²⁴ kg — the reference
Surface gravity: 9.80 m/s²
Rotation: 23.9345 h (sidereal)
Axial tilt: 23.44° — precessing over ~25,770 y
Mean temperature: 288 K — 15 °C
Atmosphere: 1.0 bar — 78% N₂, 21% O₂, 1% Ar
Magnetic field: 8×10²² A·m² — the reference dipole

Equirectangular map of the Moon showing dark maria and bright cratered highlands — Surface map, equirectangular. NASA/LRO and Clementine via Solar System Scope (CC-BY 4.0).

Earth's tidally-locked companion: dark basaltic maria, bright cratered highlands, no atmosphere or global field. Libration — 7.9° in longitude, 6.7° in latitude — exposes 59% of the surface over time.

Earth's satellite

The Moon

Equatorial radius: 1,737.4 km
Mass: 7.346×10²² kg — 0.0123 Earths
Surface gravity: 1.62 m/s²
Rotation: 27.322 d — synchronous
Axial tilt: 6.68°
Mean temperature: 250 K — −23 °C
Atmosphere: Tenuous exosphere — He, Ar, Na
Magnetic field: None

Mars as a full rust-coloured disc with Valles Marineris cutting across the centre — Global view centred on Valles Marineris. NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Thin CO₂ air, polar CO₂/water ice caps, iron-oxide dust. No global field today — only crustal remanent magnetism in the southern highlands.

Fourth planet from the Sun

Mars

Equatorial radius: 3,396.2 km — polar 3,376.2
Mass: 6.417×10²³ kg — 0.107 Earths
Surface gravity: 3.71 m/s²
Rotation: 24.6229 h
Axial tilt: 25.19°
Mean temperature: 210 K — −63 °C
Atmosphere: 0.0064 bar — 95% CO₂, 2.7% N₂
Magnetic field: None global — crustal remanence

Jupiter as a full banded disc, its southern hemisphere mottled with storms — JunoCam full disc. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, processed by a citizen scientist.

The largest planet — visibly oblate (flattening 6.5%). Fastest rotation (9.9 h) drives zonal bands and the centuries-old Great Red Spot. A colossal magnetosphere ~20,000× Earth's dipole.

Fifth planet from the Sun

Jupiter

Equatorial radius: 71,492 km — polar 66,854
Mass: 1.898×10²⁷ kg — 318 Earths
Surface gravity: 24.79 m/s²
Rotation: 9.9259 h — the fastest
Axial tilt: 3.13°
Mean temperature: 165 K — −108 °C
Atmosphere: 90% H₂, 10% He; NH₃/H₂O clouds
Magnetic field: 20,000× Earth's dipole

Saturn from above, its rings casting a hard shadow across the northern hemisphere — Cassini mosaic, 2016. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

Radial ring profile, C-ring inner edge to A-ring outer edge — the dark band is the Cassini Division. NASA/Cassini photometry.

Sixth planet from the Sun

Saturn

Less dense than water. Rings of ice and rock from 1.2 to 2.3 Saturn-radii, split by the Cassini Division. The most oblate planet, flattened 9.8%.

Equatorial radius: 60,268 km — polar 54,364
Mass: 5.683×10²⁶ kg — 95 Earths
Density: 0.687 g/cm³ — it would float
Rotation: 10.656 h
Axial tilt: 26.73°
Rings: 74,500 – 136,780 km from centre
Mean temperature: 134 K — −139 °C
Magnetic field: 580× Earth's dipole

Uranus as a featureless pale blue-green disc — Voyager 2, 1986. NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Tipped 98° — it rolls along its orbit on its side. Methane absorbs red light, giving its cyan hue. A field tilted 59° from the spin axis and offset from centre.

Seventh planet from the Sun

Uranus

Equatorial radius: 25,559 km — polar 24,973
Mass: 8.681×10²⁵ kg — 14.5 Earths
Surface gravity: 8.69 m/s²
Rotation: 17.24 h, retrograde
Axial tilt: 97.77° — on its side
Mean temperature: 76 K — −197 °C
Atmosphere: 83% H₂, 15% He, 2% CH₄
Magnetic field: 50× Earth's, tilted 59°

Neptune as a deep blue disc with the Great Dark Spot near the centre — Voyager 2, 1989. NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Deepest blue of the giants, with the strongest winds in the solar system (~2,000 km/h) and transient dark storms. A field tilted 47° and offset.

Eighth planet from the Sun

Neptune

Equatorial radius: 24,764 km — polar 24,341
Mass: 1.024×10²⁶ kg — 17.1 Earths
Surface gravity: 11.15 m/s²
Rotation: 15.9663 h (IAU 2015)
Axial tilt: 28.32°
Mean temperature: 72 K — −201 °C
Atmosphere: 80% H₂, 19% He, 1.5% CH₄
Magnetic field: 27× Earth's, tilted 47°

The moons

Only two of them have been photographed close enough to fill a frame from a spacecraft in orbit around their primary. One is ours; the other is the most volcanic body in the solar system.

Io as a small mottled disc just clear of Jupiter's shadowed limb — Io — caught at Jupiter's limb by JunoCam, and processed by a volunteer. Its material feeds Jupiter's radiation belts.

Provenance

Where the numbers come from

Every figure here is time-independent: size, shape, spin, gravity, field and atmosphere. Positions come from the ephemeris engine, not from this table.

Physical data: NASA Planetary Fact Sheets, nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov
Spin and pole: IAU Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements 2015 — Archinal et al. 2018
Surface maps: Solar System Scope (CC-BY 4.0), from NASA MESSENGER, Magellan, Viking, MGS/MOLA, Cassini, Juno, Voyager 2, LRO and Clementine
Earth and Sun: NASA Visible Earth Blue Marble; NASA/SDO HMI continuum — both public domain
Io: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS, processed by a JunoCam citizen scientist

Eleven bodies,one table