Brightest Star in the Solar System

Question: What is the point of a planet’s orbit that is most distant from the Sun called?

Answer: The aphelion describes the point at which a planet or comet’s orbit is farthest from the Sun.

Question: How many times does the Earth revolve around the Sun each year?

Answer: The Earth makes one revolution around the Sun each year.

Question: How long, in years, does it take for Uranus to orbit around the Sun?

Answer: Uranus takes about 84 Earth years to orbit the Sun. Thus, one year on Uranus is equal to about 84 Earth years.

Question: What is formed when the sun shines through water?

Answer: A rainbow forms when the sun shines through a column of falling rain. The raindrops act as a prism and disperse the light to form a rainbow.

Question: Approximately how much greater is the Sun’s mass than the Earth’s?

Answer: The Sun’s mass, or amount of matter, is about 333,000 times greater than that of the Earth.

Question: About how many times larger is the sun’s diameter than the Earth’s?

Answer: The Sun’s diameter, or distance across, is 864,950 miles (1,392,000 kilometers). This is about 109 times the distance across the Earth.