Longest year in the solar system

What is the shortest year in our Solar System?

The shortest year in our solar system is Mercury at 88 Earth days. The longest is Neptune at 165 Earth years. The planets in our solar system. Credit: WikiMedia Commons. The planets within our solar system are in constant motion in their orbits and as they spin on their axes. All planets in our solar system revolve around the Sun.

How long is a year on other planets?

How long are years on other planets? A year is defined as the time it takes a planet to complete one revolution of the Sun, for Earth this is just over 365 days. This is also known as the orbital period. Unsurprisingly the the length of each planet’s year correlates with its distance from the Sun as seen in the graph above.

How many solar days does a year take?

In short, our planet takes 365.2564 solar days to complete a single orbit of the Sun, which is why we add an extra day to the calendar every four years (i.e. a Leap Year, which 2016 happens to be). But because our axis is tilted, there is considerable variation in the seasons during the course of a year.

How long is a year on Earth?

A year on Earth is approximately 365 days. Why is that considered a year? Well, 365 days is about how long it takes for Earth to orbit all the way around the Sun one time. A year is measured by how long it takes a planet to orbit around its star. Earth orbits around the Sun in approximately 365 days. Credit: NASA/Terry Virts

How fast does a planet spin around the Sun?

In other words, not every planet spins on its axis at a much faster rate than it spins around the sun. On Venus, for example, a day is actually longer than a year: It takes our neighbor 243 Earth days to finish one axis rotation, but only about 225 Earth days to finish one entire orbit around the sun.

How long does it take a planet to orbit the Sun?

The farthest planet from the Sun, Neptune, takes 165 years to finish one orbit around the Sun. Planets also don’t move at constant speeds throughout their entire orbit. This is because the planets’ orbits are not perfectly circular, but instead slightly out of round, or elliptical (egg-shaped).