Question

Mercury is the smallest planet of the solar system.

Answer 1

Hint: Our solar system consists of eight planets among which the planets in the middle of the solar system sequence are the largest and the one closest to the sun is the smallest. Mercury is the closest planet from the sun in our solar system.

Complete step by step answer:
There are eight planets in our solar system. They are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

The size of a planet is determined by the length of its radius. The planets in our solar system have a radius in the range of 20,000 km to 70,000 km. Mercury has a radius of 2439.7 km which is the smallest in the solar system.

The planets in the solar system which are midway in terms of distance from the sun are seen to be largest and the one closest to the sun is the smallest.

This is evident from the fact that Jupiter is the largest planet and situated at 5th position and second largest planet Saturn at the 6th position.These is because the planets have not solidified fully, and are large balls of swirling liquids and gas. Since, liquids and gases have a larger volume than solids, so they occupy a larger space.

Mercury is the first and most nearest planet from the sun in the solar system.

So the correct answer is Mercury.

Additional information:
Largest planet in our solar system is Jupiter with a radius of 69,911 km.
Until 2006, Pluto was considered to be the 9th planet of our solar system and was the smallest with a radius of 1188.3km . However , in 2006, it was declared as a dwarf planet and thus lost its status as the smallest planet in the solar system.

Note: Students can remember the sequence of the solar system using some tricks. For memorizing the sequence of the planets,one can use the mnemonic-

“My Very Efficient Mother Just Served Us Nuts”

Where the first letter of each word stands for the name of the planet in proper sequence, the sequence being;

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.