Appendix C: Physical and Orbital Data for the Planets

Physical Data for the Major Planets

Table C1
Major Planet Mean Diameter (km) Mean Diameter (Earth = 1) Mass (Earth = 1) Mean Density (g/cm3) Rotation Period (d) Inclination of Equator to Orbit (°) Surface Gravity (Earth = 1[g]) Velocity of Escape (km/s)
Mercury 4879 0.38 0.055 5.43 58. 0.0 0.38 4.3
Venus 12,104 0.95 0.815 5.24 −243. 177 0.90 10.4
Earth 12,756 1.00 1.00 5.51 1.000 23.4 1.00 11.2
Mars 6779 0.53 0.11 3.93 1.026 25.2 0.38 5.0
Jupiter 140,000 10.9 318 1.33 0.414 3.1 2.53 60.
Saturn 117,000 9.13 95.2 0.69 0.440 26.7 1.07 36.
Uranus 50,700 3.98 14.5 1.27 −0.718 97.9 0.89 21.
Neptune 49,200 3.86 17.2 1.64 0.671 29.6 1.14 23.

Physical Data for Well-Studied Dwarf Planets

Table C2
Well-Studied Dwarf Planet Diameter (km) Diameter (Earth = 1) Mass (Earth = 1) Mean Density (g/cm3) Rotation Period (d) Inclination of Equator to Orbit (°) Surface Gravity (Earth = 1[g]) Velocity of Escape (km/s)
Ceres 950 0.07 0.0002 2.2 0.378 3 0.03 0.5
Pluto 2470 0.18 0.0024 1.9 −6.387 122 0.06 1.3
Haumea 1700 0.13 0.0007 3 0.163 0.8
Makemake 1400 0.11 0.0005 2 0.321 0.8
Eris 2326 0.18 0.0028 2.5 1.25[1] 1.4

Orbital Data for the Major Planets

Table C3
Major Planet Semimajor Axis (AU) Semimajor Axis (106 km) Sidereal Period (y) Sidereal Period (d) Mean Orbital Speed (km/s) Orbital Eccentricity Inclination of Orbit to Ecliptic (°)
Mercury 0.39 58 0.24 88.0 47.9 0.206 7.0
Venus 0.72 108 0.6 224.7 35.0 0.007 3.4
Earth 1.00 149 1.00 365.2 29.8 0.017 0.0
Mars 1.52 228 1.88 687.0 24.1 0.093 1.9
Jupiter 5.20 778 11.86 13.1 0.048 1.3
Saturn 9.54 1427 29.46 9.6 0.056 2.5
Uranus 19.19 2871 84.01 6.8 0.046 0.8
Neptune 30.06 4497 164.82 5.4 0.010 1.8

Orbital Data for Well-Studied Dwarf Planets

Table C4
Well-Studied Dwarf Planet Semimajor Axis (AU) Semimajor Axis (106 km) Sidereal Period (y) Mean Orbital Speed
(km/s)
Orbital Eccentricity Inclination of Orbit to Ecliptic (°)
Ceres 2.77 414.0 4.6 18 0.08 11
Pluto 39.5 5915 248.6 4.7 0.25 17
Haumea 43.1 6452 283.3 4.5 0.19 28
Makemake 45.8 6850 309.9 4.4 0.16 29
Eris 68.0 10,120 560.9 3.4 0.44 44

Attribution

F | Physical and Orbital Data for the Planets” from Astronomy 2e by Andrew Fraknoi, David Morrison, Sidney C. Wolff, © OpenStax – Rice University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.


  1. This measurement is quite uncertain.

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Fanshawe College Astronomy Copyright © 2023 by Dr. Iftekhar Haque is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.