Solar System Single-Planet Tour

Mercury

Mercury is the tiniest world and hugs the Sun at blistering proximity. Its cratered face resembles the Moon, and a slow rotation means long days that bake one hemisphere while the other freezes. Notice the muted grays that speak to its battered, iron-rich crust.

Venus

Venus glows with sulfurous clouds that hide a crushing atmosphere. It spins backward—retrograde—so sunrise comes in the west. The thick, swirling cloud deck gives it a buttery, featureless sheen that hints at the superheated world beneath.

Earth

Ocean blues, cloud whites, and landmass browns make Earth instantly recognizable. Its moderate spin feeds a dynamic climate and a magnetosphere that protects life from solar radiation. Pause the rotation to pick out continents and iconic weather systems.

Mars

Mars is a rusty desert etched with dried riverbeds, volcanoes, and polar ice caps. Its thin atmosphere allows dust storms to sweep across the planet, tinting everything in shades of butterscotch. Watch how quickly a sol passes compared to Earth’s day.

Jupiter

Jupiter is the heavyweight champion: a gas giant with alternating light and dark belts forged by jet streams. The Great Red Spot has raged for centuries, and the rapid rotation gives the planet a noticeable equatorial bulge. Clouds stretch in ribbons, revealing the complex weather beneath.

Saturn

Saturn’s golden hues and iconic rings make it the showpiece of the Solar System. The rings are made of countless ice and rock fragments, and the planet itself rotates quickly enough to flatten slightly at the poles. Tilt the rings by pausing and panning to appreciate their layered texture.

Uranus

Uranus rolls through space on its side, likely tipped by an ancient collision. Its pale cyan tone comes from methane haze high in the atmosphere. The extreme axial tilt leads to seasons that last decades, bathing each pole in sunlight or darkness for years at a time.

Neptune

Neptune is the outer sentinel with deep azure clouds driven by the fastest winds in the Solar System. Dark storm spots appear and vanish, and the planet’s internal heat keeps its atmosphere swirling even so far from the Sun. Let it spin to follow those shifting bands.