by Levi S. Johnston

Created on: April 06, 2007   Last Updated: May 20, 2007

Every elementary school student at some point or another either had a song or mnemonic device to help them remember the "Nine Planets" in order from the sun, outward. MVEMJSUNP (with just the planets), or sometimes SMVEMAJSUNP (showing the positions of the sun and asteroid belt, making the mnemonic itself a little easier to pronounce.) The letters stand for "Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto."

However, since the recent redefinition of "planets" and the addition of a newer term "dwarf planet," that mnemonic has been cut a little short and the total number of planets reduced to eight. However, we can still use it to help remember the order.

First, we have the sun (named "Sol") as the center of our solar system, which is located about two-thirds from the center of the barred-spiral shaped Milky Way Galaxy in the minor arm called the "Orion Arm." After the sun formed and started drawing particles toward it by gravity, they slowly started taking shape into the planets we know today. The four planets closest to the sun are known as the Terrestrial Planets, all of which have a central, solid core and rocky surface made of minerals. The next four planets are known as Gas Giants, each lacking a hard surface and otherwise made of gaseous substances.

MERCURY
In the first orbit around the sun is the planet Mercury (like all planets but Earth, named after an ancient Roman deity.) Mercury has no atmosphere due to its size and close position to the sun; its solar-pointing side reaches extreme high temperatures while its night-time side, due to the lack of significant atmosphere to hold in the heat, reaches extreme low temperatures. Additionally, the northern and southern poles never see sunlight and actually are capped with ice.

VENUS
The next planet is the yellow-colored Venus, named after the goddess of beauty. However, the surface of this planet is far from beautiful. Storm clouds of sulfur and rains of sulfuric acid continuously shower the terrestrial surface. Though farther from the sun than Mercury, Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system due to the thick atmosphere trapping most of the heat it absorbs. It is also closest to Earth's size of all the planets, but very unlikely to be life-supporting due to the heavy acidity characterizing this planet.

EARTH
Earth is next and is the one most familiar to anyone reading this. Unlike any other planet, Earth has oceans filled with water, huge ice caps at the poles, and running rivers and streams.

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