Here on Earth, we undergo a changing of seasons every three months. But
what about the rest of the Solar System? What does a sunny day on Mars
look like? How long would a winter on Neptune be? Let’s take a tour of
some other planets and ask ourselves what seasons might look like there.

Martian Autumn

Although Mars and Earth have nearly identical axial tilts, a year on Mars
lasts 687 Earth days (nearly 2 Earth years) due to its average distance of
142 million miles from the Sun, making it late autumn on the red planet. This
distance and a thin atmosphere make it less than perfect sweater weather. A
recent weather report from Gale Crater boasted a high of -18 degrees
Fahrenheit for the week of May 20, 2025.

Seven Years of Summer

Saturn has a 27-degree tilt, very similar to the 25-degree tilt of Mars and the
23-degree tilt of Earth. But that is where the similarities end. With a 29-year
orbit, a single season on the ringed planet lasts seven years. While we can’t
experience a Saturnian season, we can observe a ring plane crossing here
on Earth instead. The most recent plane crossing took place in March 2025,
allowing us to see Saturn’s rings ‘disappear’ from view.

A Lifetime of Spring

Even further away from the Sun, each season on Neptune lasts over 40
years. Although changes are slower and less dramatic than on Earth,
scientists have observed seasonal activity in Neptune’s atmosphere. These
images were taken between 1996 and 2002 with the Hubble Space
Telescope, with brightness in the southern hemisphere indicating seasonal
change.

As we welcome summer here on Earth, you can build a Suntrack model that
helps demonstrate the path the Sun takes through the sky during the
seasons.