What is the Solar System?
The Solar System is the Sun and everything that travels around it: planets, their moons, asteroids and comets. The Sun is so big that more than a million Earths could fit inside it!
Meet the 8 planets
Starting with the one closest to the Sun, the planets go in this order:
- Mercury — the smallest planet and the closest to the Sun.
- Venus — the hottest planet — its thick atmosphere traps the heat.
- Earth — our home and the only planet where we know there is life.
- Mars — the “Red Planet”. It gets its colour from iron oxide (rust) in its soil.
- Jupiter — the biggest planet.
- Saturn — famous for its beautiful rings.
- Uranus — spins as if it’s lying on its side.
- Neptune — the planet farthest from the Sun, with very strong winds.
What about Pluto?
Pluto used to be called the ninth planet. In 2006 scientists decided to call it a “dwarf planet”: it is very small and can’t “clear” its path of other space objects.