Earth Has It Easy—This Is What Seasons Look Like on Other Planets

Earth’s seasons may come with their own wild events (looking at you, summer wildfire season), but at least they’re familiar. A little too familiar, even—same allergies, same arguments about when to switch the heat on. But zoom out to the rest of the solar system, and the whole concept of “seasons” gets derailed fast.

Turns out, most planets do have seasons. Just…not in a way you’d ever want to experience.

The reason Earth has that reliable spring-summer-fall-winter cycle is because our planet tilts about 23.5 degrees off its axis. That lean is what gives each hemisphere a turn facing the sun throughout the year. 

What Do Seasons Look Like on Other Planets?

Mars, for one, has a similar tilt at about 25 degrees, which means it gets its own version of seasons. Instead of cozy flannel and pumpkin lattes, winter on Mars means dry ice forming bizarre spider-like cracks across the planet’s red surface. Cool, in a “is this a dream or a nightmare?” kind of way.

But some planets push the concept of seasons to the extreme. Mercury, for instance, has virtually no axial tilt, which means it doesn’t experience traditional seasons at all. One side is scorched under constant sunlight, while the other remains in a deep freeze. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Uranus, tilted at an insane 98 degrees. It essentially spins on its side, causing each pole to spend decades in unbroken sunlight or total darkness. Suddenly, six months of Arctic winter feels almost reasonable.

Tilt isn’t the only factor, though. The shape of a planet’s orbit also messes with its seasons. Earth’s orbit is close to circular, but planets like Pluto (yes, we’re still including Pluto) swing way farther out and then loop back in. The climate swings are so intense, they make Earth’s worst heatwaves look like a brisk Tuesday morning.

And these factors—tilt and orbit—aren’t even permanent. Mars’s tilt, for example, has shifted dramatically over millions of years. It used to be just 10 degrees. At one point, it was over 40. That means its past seasons were very different from what we see now.

Earth, by comparison, is a freakishly stable paradise. “We’re very lucky,” Georgia Tech astrophysicist Gongjie Li told Live Science, noting that our consistent tilt likely helped life gain a foothold here in the first place.

So yes, other planets have seasons. But if you’re imagining fall leaves and breezy nights on Saturn, don’t. Just much colder, weirder, and way less hospitable. Sweater weather, this is not.