On Earth, from January 1 to December 31, there are 365 days or 366 days in a leap year, which is how long a year lasts. But is it the same thing everywhere in the Solar System?
The answer is obviously no and you will see that it takes more than one human life for a planet to make a complete revolution of the Sun.
A year in the Solar System
Based on data released by the National Center for Space Studies (Cnes), the French space agency, here is how long you would spend on a planet in the Solar System if you could go there for a year:
- Mercury: 88 days
- Venus: 224 days
- March: 687 days
- Jupiter: just under 12 years old
- Saturn: 29.4 years
- Uranus: 84 years old
- Neptune: 164.8 years
Thus, there is very little chance that you will witness in your lifetime, seeing a complete revolution of Uranus around the Sun and no chance of seeing Neptune complete an entire “year”. Only certain animal species such as the Greenland shark, which can live more than 400 years, for example, have been able to witness, without being conscious of it, at least two rotations of Neptune during its life.
Long year = long day?
The question that we can ask ourselves immediately afterwards is that which concerns the length of days on the different planets of the Solar System. Are the days further away from the Sun? Or not at all?
On Earth, a day, a phenomenon which defines a complete rotation of a planet on itself, lasts approximately 24 hours (23h 56 min 4 s for Cnes). Here is the length of a day on each planet in the Solar System:
- Mercury: 58.6 days
- Venus: 243 days
- March: 24.7 hours
- Jupiter: just under 10 hours
- Saturn: 10:33 a.m.
- Uranus: 5:14 p.m.
- Neptune: 4:06 p.m.
Thus, we notice that telluric or rocky planets have much longer days than their gaseous cousins. But the most surprising thing is really at the level of Venus. Indeed, considered a “twin” of Earth in terms of size, a single day there would last from January 1 to September 1.
Which means, you will have noticed, that a day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus.
Source: Cnes
With an unwavering passion for local news, Christopher leads our editorial team with integrity and dedication. With over 20 years’ experience, he is the backbone of Wouldsayso, ensuring that we stay true to our mission to inform.
