ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Planetary radius

Planetary radius is basically the size of a planet - how big it is from one side to the other. Imagine you're holding a ball - it has a radius because you can measure from the center of the ball to the outside edge.

Now, planets are much, much bigger than a ball, so their radius is measured in kilometers or miles instead of centimeters or inches. Scientists use special tools to measure the radius of planets.

For example, let's say we want to measure the radius of Earth. We can use something called satellites that orbit around the planet. These satellites can take pictures of the Earth from space and scientists can use those pictures to figure out the size of the planet.

Knowing the radius of a planet is important because it helps us understand how big the planet is and how much space it takes up in our solar system. It also helps us compare planets to each other - for example, we can say that Jupiter is much bigger than Earth because its radius is much larger.