Synoptic Table of the Inner Solar System Planets, with Cut-Away Views

The Inner Solar System Planets, with Cut-Away Views

	General features	Differentiation	Atmosphere	Primary shaping processes	Erosion processes
Mercury	similar to Moon, but higher density and mostly iron with few or no rocky crust	yes	none (in fact an extremely thin one)	heavy bombardment, lava floods	further smaller impacts produced a regolith layer
	a large core, about 75 percent the planet size, and a crust of about 62 miles (100 km) thick. Mercury's inner core was proved indeed solid. The solid, iron core is about 1,260 miles (about 2,000 kilometers) wide and makes up about half of Mercury's entire core (about 2,440 miles, or nearly 4,000 kilometers, wide). Hints of some molten area in Mercury's interior had been observed from Earth, through small shifts in the spin of Mercury, called librations
Venus	Earth-sized, warm, high density	yes. A molten iron core; a rock mantle	primitive atmosphere was modified by a runaway greenhouse effect. Water was lost	volcanism, few craters	no plate tectonics
	a crust of 16-25 miles (25-40 km), a core, a mantle
Earth	only known life-bearing planet in the solar system	yes. High density. Iron core, rock mantle	water evaporation and photosynthesis transformed primitive atmosphere (less carbon dioxide, oxygen). A moderate greenhouse effect	heavy bombardment, volcanism	plate tectonics, erosion
	a crust of 3-19 miles (5-30 km), a mantle, a dual-core
Moon	origin in debate (impactor at Earth?). Low density, all rock, few iron	yes. No molten core. It is unknown whether the Moon has a fully differentiated and melted structure with a metallic core or retains a partially primordial, unmelted interior	no primitive atmosphere	heavy bombardment period, lava floods	further bombardment produced a regolith layer
	a crust, mantle and core. note: recentest findings hint to a solid, iron-rich inner core with a radius of nearly 150 miles and a fluid, primarily liquid-iron outer core with a radius of roughly 205 miles as a partially molten boundary layer around the core estimated to have a radius of nearly 300 miles is then conceding to Moon's thick mantle
Mars	difference between northern (volcanoes and plains) and southern (ancient surface, craters) hemisphere	not entirely differentiated (melted core with solid rocks) as Mars features a liquid outer core of molten rock however. Medium density	a primitive atmosphere in lesser quantity than at Earth. Once water. A weak gravity rendered atmosphere thinner	heavy bombardment period, volcanism	water, wind
	a crust, a mantle and a core