THE DAYS AND YEARS OF PLANETS

I've embarked on a DIY course of private study about our Solar System. It's totally engrossing and I'm really enjoying finding out stuff I never knew.

This is the first of several occasional posts I plan to do about what I'm discovering about our System. I can only absorb new info in bitesize chunks [ must be my age!] so that's how I'll post it once I think its sunk in! Maybe its of interest to readers. I hope so.

First up is the fascinating 'world' of Planets' days and years. Here's my own table of our solar community, which includes three amazing dwarf planets; our close neighbour Ceres, faraway Eris and my personal favourite, the unfathomably distant Sedna. Mistakes are unintentional, I'm still learning!

                 DAY LENGTH*  YEAR LENGTH*

* in Earth hours, days and years

Looking at this table, I few things jump out. The first is that a day on Venus lasts 244 years! That's a long time to wait for sleep! It's the only planet in our system that has a day, which is longer than its year. Takes some getting your head round!

Secondly, Mars has an almost identical day length to us but the Martian year lasts two Earth years. Does that mean we would all be half our age on Mars?

Last but not least, the year lengths become vast once you get past Uranus [no giggling please, we're meant to be adults!]. The Neptunian year lasts a respectable 165 Earth years, Pluto's a sobering 249 years and Eris an eye-watering half-Millennium. 

The King of Years though is unquestionably my number one dwarf planet, Sedna, at 11,400 Earth years! The furthest object Man has yet discovered in our own solar neighbourhood, Sedna boasts only superlatives; the most distant, the coldest, the longest year and much more. Ludicrously far yet tantalisingly close, I will return to Sedna soon.