Here’s what an entire day looks like on each planet in our Solar System (moons were taken into account for gas and ice giants)
When you think of a day, you normally think of a day-night cycle. This is called a day solar. On Earth, a solar day lasts about 24 hours. However, the Earth’s orbit, meaning that it’s not a perfect circle. This means that some solar days on Earth are a few minutes longer than 24 hours, and others are a few minutes shorter. Here’s a great video in timelapse which leads us to spend an entire day on each planet in our Solar System.
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How long is a day on other planets
Another way to measure a day is to count the time it takes for a planet to make one complete rotation on itself. This is called a day sidereal. On Earth, a sidereal day lasts 23 hours and 56 minutes. Well, now we know how long an Earth day is, but what about the other planets? How long does it take these planets to complete a complete revolution on themselves?
The long days of Mercury and Venus
You might be surprised to discover how different the relationship between the length of the day and the length of the year is on other planets. On Venus, for example, one day is actually: it takes 243 Earth days to complete the rotation on itself, but only about 225 Earth days to complete an entire orbit around the sun. A day on Neptune, however, is shorter than an Earth day by a full 8 hours, but it completes an orbit only about once every 165 Earth years. But let’s look at the length of the day on the other planets: on Mercury a day lasts 1,408 hours, on Venus 5,832 hours. Mars, on the other hand, is more similar to Earth (25 hours). Gas giants rotate very quickly. Jupiter takes just 10 hours to complete one rotation, Saturn 11 hours, Uranus 17 hours and Neptune just 16 hours.
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