Solar System Details

How many planets are in the Solar System?

There are eight planets in the solar system. The four inner terrestrial planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, all of which consist mainly of rock. The four outer planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus, giant planets that consist mainly of either gases or ice.

What is the Solar System made up of?

Our solar system is made up of the sun and all the amazing objects that travel around it. The universe is filled with billions of star systems. Located inside galaxies, these cosmic arrangements are made up of at least one star and all the objects that travel around it, including planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and meteoroids.

How does the Solar System tell a story?

With each planet, moon, asteroid, and comet, the solar system tells a story of birth, destruction, rebirth, and motion—stories written in craters, frozen oceans, swirling storms, and planetary rings.

What is a small body in the Solar System?

Any natural solar system object other than the Sun, a planet, a dwarf planet, or a moon is called a small body; these include asteroids, meteoroids, and comets. Most of the more than one million asteroids, or minor planets, orbit between Mars and Jupiter in a nearly flat ring called the asteroid belt.