Jupiter is the largest of all the planets. Known since ancient times because it is visible to the naked eye, the Romans named it after Jupiter, the king of all their gods. With the largest mass in the solar system, Jupiter also has the largest gravitational pull. This accounts for the 63 moons orbiting the planet, the most in the solar system. Jupiter also has rings, but they are very faint. Although 1,300 times larger than the Earth, Jupiter makes a full rotation in just 10 hours. It takes 12 Earth years for it to orbit the sun.
Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system. Saturn's famous rings are the largest in the solar system and, unlike other Jovian planets, the rings are visible to modern telescopes. The rings are made up of billions of tiny particles of rock and dust captured by the planet's gravitational pull. Although 10 times greater in size than Earth, the density of the planet is so low it would actually float on water. It takes Saturn 29 years to orbit the sun. Saturn was the most distant planet known to ancient astronomers, and the Romans named it after their god of agriculture.
Discovered by William Herschel in 1781, Uranus is the only planet named after a Greek, not Roman, god. The coldest planet in the solar system, Uranus is famous for its unusually tilted axis. At 97 degrees, the planet appears to be spinning on its side. This rotation means that night on some surfaces of Uranus can last for 40 years. Known as an ice giant, it is 14 times larger than Earth. It takes over 80 years for the planet to orbit the sun.
Neptune is the most distant planet in our solar system, and the last of the Jovian planets. Along with Uranus, Neptune is the other "ice giant" in the solar system. It, too, has a ring system but it is barely visible. It is four times the size of Earth, and takes 165 years to orbit the sun. The stormiest planet in the solar system, Neptune's hurricanes blow winds more than 1,200 miles an hour. Discovered by two separate astronomers in the 1800s, Neptune was named after the Roman god of the sea because he was the only major Roman god without a planet named in his honor. Years later, Neptune was discovered to have a deep blue color, making the name entirely appropriate.