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SOLAR
SYSTEM
Exploring our planets...a fun journey to space!
The Sun contains 99.85% of all the matter in the Solar System. The Sun is a star that exists at the middle of our Solar System. It is only one of a 100 billion stars found in our galaxy!
The planets, which condensed out of the same disk of material that formed the Sun, contain only 0.135% of the mass of the solar system.
Our Solar System has eight planets which orbit the sun. In order of distance from the sun they are; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Asteroids are rocky, airless worlds that orbit our sun, but are too small to be called planets. Tens of thousands of these minor planets are gathered in the main asteroid belt, a vast doughnut-shaped ring between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids that pass close to Earth are called near-earth objects.
Comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock and dust roughly the size of a small town. When a comet's orbit brings it close to the sun, it heats up and spews dust and gases into a giant glowing head larger than most planets. The dust and gases form a tail that stretches away from the sun for millions of kilometers.​
Components of the Solar System
​COMPOSITION ​
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