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Did You Know
By Ginger Wentrcek
Each planet in our solar system is unique and holds astonishing secrets that boggle the mind. State-size volcanoes, USA-size canyons, earth-size storms, disappearing rings, and storms shaped like a hexagon are a few of the surprises we have discovered about our solar system neighbors.
Largest Volcano in the Solar System
It's about the size of Arizona, about 374 miles from one side to the other. It's about 3 times the height of Mount Everest, 16 miles to the top. This is Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system, located on the planet Mars.
Image by NASA
Large Canyon System
It's 2,500 miles long, about as long as the United States. It's Valles Marineris, a system of Martian canyons on the planet Mars.
Mars Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech
Three Times the Width of Earth
It's pretty close to three times as wide as Earth and has been seen by astronomers for close to 300 years. It's The Great Red Spot on the planet Jupiter.
Saturn's Rings Go MIA
About every 15 years the rings of Saturn seem to disappear when viewed through a small telescope. The rings are wide, but very thin, and as Saturn rotates around the sun, the thin rings are edge-on to the Earth.
Saturn's Hexagon
It spans about 20,000 miles across and has winds that reach 200 mph in the massive storm at its center. It is a hexagon-shaped, turbulent, and unstable current of air on Saturn.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
