How long does one year last on different planets?
Quick Answer
A planet’s year is its orbital period: Mercury takes 88 Earth days, Earth 365 days, Jupiter about 12 years, and Neptune about 165 years.
The Full Story
A year is simply the time a planet takes to go once around the Sun, so it depends on distance and orbital speed. Mercury, being closest, completes an orbit in just 88 Earth days, while Earth takes about 365 days. Farther out, the planets take much longer: Jupiter needs nearly 12 Earth years and Neptune about 165 Earth years. This is one reason the outer Solar System feels so slow and distant to us. The pattern follows Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, which describe how orbital periods relate to distance from the Sun.
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