Planets

• One central star called SUN
• Nine planets: Mercury (closest to the sun), Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto (farthest from the sun)
• More than 60 moons
• Millions of rocky asteroids
• Billions of icy comets                                                         

How old is the solar system?	about 4.5 billion years old
How was it formed??	All of the solar system except the sun are loose particles left over from the formation of the Sun. Find out more....Q and A
How big is the solar system?	There are no physical boundaries in space. Pluto, the farthest planet from the Sun, orbits about as far as 40 astronomical units.
Are all the planets the same?	They are all different colors and sizes. Some are rocky, some are made of gas, some have rings, some have moons, one is almost all ice. Follow this link for more...
Do the planets have the same shaped orbit?	No! All the planets have their own unique path around the sun. Pluto has a very elliptical orbit. Because of this sometimes Pluto is closer to the sun than Neptune!!!
Can you see the planets?	You can see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn without a telescope but not Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
Where do the planet names come from?	Every planet, except for Earth, was named for an ancient Roman god or goddess.
What Is An Orbit? An orbit is the path followed by an object in space as it moves moves around another object. Read more , and find out about Sir Issac Newton. Earth takes 365 days to go around the sun, while Pluto takes 248 years.

Let's Look at the Planets: Click on the links for loads of information...

VENUS is the hottest planet and the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. Click here for a different view of Venus.

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EARTH is the only planet with liquid water and the only planet that has life!
Earth has one moon but Jupiter has 60!!!
Click on the image for a larger size view.
Image courtesy of NASA                                Investigate more        

MARS has enormous volcanoes, valleys and Dust Storms. Olympus Mons might be the largest volcano in the Solar System. We've been sending spacecraft to Mars since 1960. Here's the latest information from Mars.
Click here for a different view of Mars.
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JUPITER is so big that all the other planets in the Solar System could fit inside. It has a thick atmosphere, visible bands and a great red spot, which is a storm. In 1610 when Galileo first pointed a telescope at the sky he discovered Jupiter's four moons, IO, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
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SATURN has the most spectacular and complex set of rings in the solar system. The rings are made of chunks of ice and rock, are very thin sheets, and there are lots of them! Follow the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn.
Click on the image for a larger view.
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URANUS

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NEPTUNE Each season on Neptune lasts 40 years. Its blue color is caused by methane in its atmosphere. Neptune has a Great Dark Spot which might be a hole in the methane. Click on the image for a larger view.

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PLUTO is so small that some Solar System moons are bigger than Pluto. Pluto is usually the farthest planet but its unique orbit sometimes causes it to move closer to the sun than Neptune. Pluto's surface is made of ice made from frozen Nitrogen. Click on the image for a larger view.
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