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The surface of Venus is comparatively flat. When 93% of the topography was mapped by Pioneer Venus Orbiter, scientists found that the total distance from the lowest point to the highest point on the entire surface was about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi), about the same as the vertical distance between the Earth's ocean floor and the higher summits of the Himalayas.
The adjectival forms of the names of astronomical bodies are not always easily predictable. Attested adjectival forms of the larger bodies are listed below, along with the two small Martian moons; in some cases they are accompanied by their demonymic equivalents, which denote hypothetical inhabitants of these bodies.
The Earth's terrain varies greatly from place to place. About 70.8% [18] of the surface is covered by water. The sea floor has mountainous features, including a globe-spanning mid-ocean ridge system, as well as undersea volcanoes, [19] oceanic trenches, submarine canyons, oceanic plateaus, and abyssal plains.
Because of the retrograde rotation, the length of a solar day on Venus is significantly shorter than the sidereal day, at 116.75 Earth days (making the Venusian solar day shorter than Mercury's 176 Earth days — the 116-day figure is close to the average number of days it takes Mercury to slip underneath the Earth in its orbit [the number of ...
Exceptions to this rule are valleys and craters on Mars and Venus; naming conventions for these features differ according to size. One feature classification, regio, was originally used on early maps of the Moon and Mercury (drawn from telescopic observations) to describe vague albedo features. It is now used to delineate a broad geographic region.
The Venusian diameter of about 7,500 miles (12,000 km) is just a tad smaller than Earth's 7,900 miles (12,750 km). "Venus and Earth are often called sister planets because of their similarities in ...
[106] [107] [108] Earth's surface is shaped by plate tectonics that formed the continental masses. [93] Earth's planetary magnetosphere shields the surface from radiation, limiting atmospheric stripping and maintaining life habitability. [109] The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. [110] Its diameter is one-quarter the size of Earth's. [111]
The Sun, planets, moons and dwarf planets (true color, size to scale, distances not to scale) The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Solar System: Solar System – gravitationally bound system comprising the Sun and the objects that orbit it, either directly or indirectly.