Planets Coloring Pages – 32 Free PDFs to Print and Color

Planets have fascinated people long before anyone owned a telescope, back when they were only a handful of lights that seemed to wander slowly across the fixed stars. This set gathers 32 free planet coloring pages for kids and grown-ups who want to get to know the solar system with a pencil in hand. Every sheet aims for real detail, cratered Mercury, cloud wrapped Venus, ringed Saturn, rather than eight identical circles in different colors, so coloring one becomes a small lesson in what actually makes each planet recognizable.

Our 32 Free Planets Coloring Pages

All 32 pages below are free and printable. Click any picture to open the full size PDF, ready to print at home or in the classroom on standard A4 paper. The set ranges from very easy outlines with thick, simple lines for younger colorers to detailed scenes with fine crater work and cloud texture for older kids and adults who want more of a challenge.

The Eight Planets

Mercury with craters

A round view of the planet Mercury covered in circular and oval craters of many sizes, crossed by long winding rift lines like the real Caloris Basin cracks.

Venus with swirling cloud bands

A full round view of Venus wrapped in horizontal cloud bands, two of which curl into spiral eddies on opposite sides of the globe. The open, sweeping lines leave plenty of room for smooth shading of the thick acidic atmosphere.

Mars with canyons and craters

Mars fills the circle with two large jagged impact basins near the top and a wide branching canyon system, likely evoking Valles Marineris, cutting across the middle. Smaller ringed craters and plain dots of varying size dot the lower half of the globe.

Jupiter with the Great Red Spot

Jupiter fills the circle with wavy horizontal bands, several curling into small spiral eddies, and a large central swirl standing in for the Great Red Spot. Three small ovals float beside it, echoing Jupiter’s other storm systems.

Saturn with its ring system

Saturn tilts diagonally across the page with its wide triple ring band sweeping in front of and behind the globe. Two curved lines cross the planet’s face to mark its cloud belts, and the rings are drawn as three concentric ellipses for easy separation.

ringed planet with a spiral storm

A round planet tilts behind three thin concentric rings that wrap fully around it, with several wavy horizontal cloud bands crossing its surface. A small spiral storm with nested loops sits in the lower right of the globe.

Sun, Moon, and Earth

sun with looping solar flares

A large plain circle representing the sun has two looping flares arcing off its upper edges and two irregular blotchy sunspots on its face, one starburst-shaped and one oval.

moon with maria and craters

A full moon fills the page as a single circle, its surface marked by three large irregular maria patches and six round craters of varying size scattered between them.

astronaut with lunar lander

An astronaut in a full spacesuit stands giving a thumbs-up beside a four-legged lunar lander with a ladder, scattered rocks on the ground, and a small view of Earth in the sky above.

moon phases orbiting Earth

Nine circles depicting the moon’s cycle arc above a globe centered on the Americas, from a blank new moon through crescents and a cratered full moon to blank again on the far side.

Rockets and Space Travel

rocket launch with planets

A multi-stage rocket blasts off from a launch tower on billowing exhaust clouds, with Earth, the moon, ringed Saturn and striped Jupiter arranged around it in the sky. The scene mixes fine panel lines on the rocket with bold, open shapes on the planets.

rocket and satellite near Earth

A diagonal rocket with fin tips and a flaming exhaust flies past a satellite with two dish antennas and solar panels, with Earth’s continents visible in the corner. The rocket body is split into three ringed segments, good for shading each one a different way.

cartoon rocket with round window

A classic cartoon rocket with a round porthole window and flame trail sits centered among four planets and scattered stars. Ringed Saturn and striped Jupiter appear on the left, while Earth and a cratered moon fill the right corners.

Mars rover with robotic arm

A six-wheeled Mars rover with a camera mast, dish antenna and a claw-tipped arm grips a boulder on rocky ground, while Earth, a cratered moon and Mars hang in the sky above. The tread pattern on each wheel and the paneled solar deck give this one plenty of fine detail.

kids at spaceship control window

Three seated figures in high-backed chairs face a huge cockpit window showing the sun, Earth, Saturn, Jupiter and other bodies scattered across the starry view, with control panels and buttons lining the dashboard below. One child points up at the scene while the other two sit at consoles with screens and knobs.

Telescope and Starry Sky

boy stargazing with a telescope

Standing on a small step stool, a boy peers through a large tripod-mounted telescope while five planets and scattered stars fill the sky around him, including striped Jupiter, ringed Saturn and a cratered moon. The tripod’s adjustable legs and the telescope’s focus knob and finder scope are drawn in careful detail.

Observatory dome with telescope

A round observatory building with an open sliding dome and a large telescope pointed skyward sits between two bushes, surrounded by five planets, a cratered moon and four stars. The building has paned windows, a paneled door and a striped Jupiter with its Great Red Spot floating at upper left.

large observatory telescope on a ladder

A person climbs a tall wooden ladder to reach the eyepiece of a massive open-tube reflector telescope mounted on a cylindrical pedestal, with wiring and a control box running down its side. Saturn, Jupiter, Earth and the Moon are scattered around it, and Earth appears twice, once at each side of the scene.

Kids stargazing with constellations

A boy points up at the night sky while a girl kneels behind a tripod telescope, surrounded by Orion and three other star constellations connected by lines, plus Saturn, Jupiter, Earth and the Moon. Mountains, pine trees and bushes line the horizon below the crowded sky.

Milky Way over a mountain lake with canoe

A diagonal band of scattered stars and stardust sweeps across the sky above a mountain lake, where pine trees line the shore and a canoe rests on the rocky bank. Ripples of reflection cross the water and small rocks and grass tufts dot the foreground.

Moons, Comets, and Asteroids

comet with a pitted nucleus

A comet streaks diagonally across the page, its cratered round nucleus trailing two long curved gas tails and a sharp, straight dust tail. A radiant sun and four sparkling stars fill the empty corners of the sky.

ringed planet with orbiting moons

A large banded planet fills the center of the page, wrapped in three concentric rings, while three cratered moons of different sizes float nearby along with two small round satellites and five sparkling stars.

space probe among asteroids and planets

A satellite with paneled solar wings and a dish antenna drifts at the center of a dense asteroid field, surrounded by Jupiter, Saturn and two views of Earth. A dozen irregular, crater-pocked asteroids of varying sizes fill the remaining space.

four Galilean-style moons of Jupiter

Four round moons sit in a row against a starry sky: one with erupting volcanic plumes, one crossed by branching cracks, one covered in craters of many sizes, and one striped with long parallel grooves.

astronaut boy waving from a meteorite

A smiling astronaut boy sits astride a lumpy, crater-covered meteorite, waving with one gloved hand while Earth, ringed Saturn and a swirl-patterned moon orbit around him among five stars.

The Solar System

solar system planets in a row

Eight planets plus Mars stand side by side in size order, from small cratered Mercury to giant Jupiter with the Great Red Spot to ringed Saturn and on to Uranus and Neptune. Earth in the middle shows its continents, while the others are marked with cloud bands, craters or simple stripes.

solar system with orbital rings

A spiky sun sits at the center of eight nested oval orbits, each ring carrying one planet in its correct order from cratered Mercury out to ringed Saturn and a striped gas giant. Earth stands out with its continents, while Uranus shows a slim tilted ring.

planet size comparison

Four small planets line up on the left in front of a giant striped Jupiter, while a tiny Mars-like world sits alone on the right. Jupiter carries a large oval storm and scattered craters mark two of the smaller globes, showing just how dramatic the size difference between planets really is.

space probe flying past Saturn

A satellite probe with a large dish antenna and two extended booms drifts through a starry scene near a ringed, striped planet. Two small cratered moons and four sparkling stars fill the surrounding space.

Patterns and Mandalas

space mandala with sun and planets

A radiant sun sits at the center of a symmetrical mandala, ringed by eight small planets and framed by two outer bands of crescent moons, stars and streaking comets. The circular layout turns the solar system into a decorative pattern rather than a scientific diagram.

space wheel with rocket and planets

A striped gas giant fills the center of a circular wheel divided into twelve wedges, each holding a different space object: rocket, telescope, lunar lander, satellite, comet, spiral galaxy and more. A ring of small stars and circles frames the outer edge, turning the whole design into a mandala-style space collage.

ringed planet with mandala patterns

A large ringed planet crosses the center of the sheet, its surface split into bands filled with zigzags, spirals, scallops and dotted rows instead of realistic texture. Six smaller round planets with their own simple patterns float around the edges.

Planets at a Glance

Where the Word “Planet” Comes From

The word planet traveled into English by way of the Latin planeta, which itself came from the Greek planetes, meaning wanderer. The Greeks gave these few points of light that name because, unlike the so-called fixed stars around them, they shift position over the course of weeks. Watching a planet creep a little further along the sky each night is still one of the simplest ways to pick one out without any equipment at all.

Rocky Worlds and Gas Giants

There are eight planets. In 2006 the International Astronomical Union settled on a formal definition of what counts as a planet, including the requirement that it has cleared its orbit of other debris. Pluto does not meet that bar, which is why it is now classified as a dwarf planet rather than a full one.

The eight split neatly into two families. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are the inner planets, rocky worlds with a solid surface you could, in theory, stand on. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are the outer giants, built from gas and ice with no solid ground anywhere. All four giants actually have rings, though only Saturn’s are bright enough to see easily; the fainter rings around Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune were not confirmed until the twentieth century. Jupiter alone is so large that more than 1,300 Earths would fit inside it, and its Great Red Spot is a storm wider than our entire planet that has been watched for centuries.

Most of the planets take their names from Roman mythology: Mercury the messenger, Venus the goddess of love, Mars the god of war, Jupiter the king of the gods, and Saturn his father, with Neptune named for the god of the sea. Earth is the one exception, its name comes from the Old English word eorthe, meaning ground or soil, and Uranus is the only planet named for a Greek god rather than a Roman one.

Getting the Colors Right

Color choice matters more on these pages than it might seem. Mercury is gray and heavily cratered, much like the Moon. Venus is pale yellowish white, a color that belongs entirely to its clouds, since no telescope has ever actually seen its surface. Earth is blue with white swirls and brownish green continents. Mars is rust red with a white polar cap, and that red comes from iron oxide, in other words, from plain rust. Jupiter is cream and orange brown in horizontal bands, Saturn a pale gold, Uranus a pale turquoise, and Neptune a deep blue, with the blue on both outer giants coming from methane in their atmospheres. At the center of it all sits the Sun, which holds over 99 percent of the total mass of the solar system, and despite sitting farther from the Sun than Mercury, Venus is actually the hottest planet, since its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere traps heat so well.

Getting the Best Prints

These pages are built as clean, high contrast PDFs, so they print well on almost any home printer or office copier. Standard 20 to 24 lb printer paper works fine for pencils, crayons, or markers, but if a child likes to layer color heavily or add watercolor, a slightly heavier cardstock around 32 lb will keep the page from buckling or letting color bleed through. Print at “actual size” or 100 percent rather than “fit to page,” so the fine outlines stay sharp, and choose your printer’s highest quality setting for the more detailed sheets. Black and white printing is the right choice, not color, since the whole point of the page is to color it yourself.

For age, look at the line work before you print. The very easy sheets, with a single thick outline and few internal details, suit toddlers and early preschoolers who are still learning to stay inside the lines. The mid range pages, with cloud bands, simple craters, or a basic rocket, fit most elementary age kids well. The most detailed sheets, including the full solar system scenes, the mandala patterns, and the telescope views set against a busy starry sky, are better saved for older kids, teens, and adults who enjoy a longer, more absorbing project.

Things to Make With Your Finished Pages

• A solar system wall chart. Line up the eight planet pages in order from Mercury to Neptune and tape them along a hallway or bedroom wall so the order sticks in memory over time.
• A classroom bulletin board. Assign one planet to each student, let them color and label it, then pin the finished pages around a sun cutout at the center of the board.
• A homemade solar system book. Punch holes along one edge of each finished page, add a cover, and bind them with ribbon or brass fasteners into a book your child can read and reread.
• A favorite planet spotlight. Have each child pick their favorite planet, color the page carefully, and write two or three facts about it on the back to share out loud.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are these planet coloring pages really free?

Yes. All 32 pages are free to download and print for personal and classroom use. Just click the picture in the gallery to open the full size PDF.

What age are the planet coloring pages for?

The set spans a wide range, from very easy sheets suited to toddlers and preschoolers up through detailed scenes better suited to older kids, teens, and adults. Check the line thickness and detail level of a page before printing to match it to the colorer.

Which colors are actually correct for each planet?

Mercury is gray, Venus is pale yellowish white, Earth is blue with brownish green continents, and Mars is rust red with a white polar cap. Jupiter is cream and orange brown, Saturn is pale gold, Uranus is pale turquoise, and Neptune is deep blue. Using these colors helps kids recognize each planet again later in a book or on a screen, not just on the page in front of them.

Can I use these pages in my classroom?

Yes, teachers are welcome to print and hand out these pages for classroom use, including for solar system units, science fair displays, or bulletin boards.

What paper size are the pages, and will they print on US letter paper?

The PDFs are formatted for A4 paper, but they print cleanly on US letter as well. Just print at “actual size” rather than “fit to page” so the proportions and fine details stay accurate.

Do the planets need to be colored in order, or can I skip around?

There is no set order. Some kids like to work straight through from Mercury to Neptune, while others jump straight to a favorite planet or the rocket and telescope pages first. Either approach works fine.

Matthew Matthysen( Drawing and Painting Artist )

Matthew Matthysen is an educated multidisciplinary artist and illustrator. He successfully completed his art degree at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, majoring in art history and contemporary drawing. The focus of his thesis was to explore the philosophical implications of the macro and micro-universe on the human experience. Matthew uses diverse media, such as written and hands-on components, to explore various approaches that are on the border between philosophy and science.

Matthew organized various exhibitions before and during his years as a student and is still passionate about doing so today. He currently works as a freelance artist and writer in various fields. He also has a permanent position at a renowned online gallery (ArtGazette) where he produces various works on commission. As a freelance artist, he creates several series and successfully sells them to galleries and collectors. He loves to use his work and skills in various fields of interest.

Matthew has been creating drawing and painting tutorials since the relaunch in 2020. Through his involvement with artincontext.org, he has been able to deepen his knowledge of various painting mediums. For example, watercolor techniques, calligraphy and lately digital drawing, which is becoming more and more popular.

Learn more about Matthew Matthysen and the Art in Context Team.