Our Solar System

Various celestial bodies make up our solar system. We have one star in our system, our Sun named Sol. There are eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. There are 146 moons, including our own. As well as several comets, asteroids, and dwarf planets like Pluto.

The planets, asteroids and comets all orbit the Sun, but not all orbits are the same. For instance some orbits are more oblong than others. The orbits are in the shape of an ellipse, or a flattened circle. Moons orbit their planets in much the same way. Some planets have several moons, like Jupiter, while some planets like Mercury have none.

An easy way to tell if you’re looking at a planet or a star in the night sky is to see if the object seems to be twinkling. The light a star emits makes it seem to wink down at us, while planets do not create their own light; they only reflect the light from stars. So if the point of light you’re looking at seems to be solid, you’re probably looking at a planet!

Trivia

Did you know that our solar system has four gas giants? Gas giants are made up entirely of gases like hydrogen, which means there is no solid surface on which to land. It is theorized that at their core is a rocky center, but the immense pressure at the center of these gas giants makes it impossible to land there. Gas giants are also known as Jovian or Outer Planets. The gases that make up Jovian planets also make up stars. If Jupiter had grown about 80% more it would have become a star itself!