Planet Order

Starting nearest the Sun, the order is:

Mercury → Venus → Earth → Mars → Jupiter → Saturn → Uranus → Neptune

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, Earth is third, and Neptune is the furthest of the eight planets.

The diagram shows the sequence only. It does not show the planets’ actual sizes or the distances between them, and the planets do not remain lined up like this as they orbit.

Learning the sequence in two groups

It helps to learn two shorter sequences. The first four are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars: these are the rocky planets. The next four are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, further out from the Sun. Joining the groups places Mars immediately before Jupiter.

For example, to identify the planet sixth from the Sun, count along the sequence: Mercury first, Venus second, Earth third, Mars fourth, Jupiter fifth and Saturn sixth.

A sentence to help you remember

The mnemonic “My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming” gives the initials M V E M J S U N in the correct order. Each word stands for one planet.

The two Ms represent different planets: the first is Mercury, and the fourth is Mars. Use the sentence to recall the planet names, rather than learning only the initials.