• Question: Why are other planets larger or smaller than Earth?

    Asked by Cameron Brooking to Heather, Helen, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 14 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      Yes lots. The only planet about the same size as ours is Venus.
      Mercury and Mars are both much smaller, and Pluto – though no longer a planet – is smaller even than our moon.

      All the other planets are bigger than us.
      We’ve also found planets around other stars, and most of those are MUCH bigger than the Earth, but that is mostly because bigger planets are much easier to find.

    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 16 Nov 2014:

      The planets that are much larger than us in the solar system tend to be made up of mostly gas, instead of the rock Earth is made from. As the solar system came together, these gases didn’t survive close in to the Sun, only further away.

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