Star
Sun
The star at the center of our Solar System, a 4.6-billion-year-old ball of hot plasma.
Image: NASA/SDO
Solar System
Part of Milky Way
The Sun and everything bound to it: eight planets, their moons, dwarf planets and countless smaller bodies.
Our Solar System
Image: NASA/JPL
Our planetary system formed about 4.6 billion years ago from a collapsing cloud of gas and dust. The Sun holds 99.8% of its mass. The whole system orbits the centre of the Milky Way about 26,000 light-years out and needs about 230 million years for one lap.
Key facts
- Type
- Planetary system
- Age
- About 4.6 billion years
- Star
- The Sun
- Planets
- 8
Stars and planets
The system's stars first, then its planets from the closest to the farthest.
- Planet · 0.39 AU
Mercury
The smallest planet and the closest to the Sun, scorched by day and frozen by night.
Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
- Planet · 0.72 AU
Venus
Earth's twin in size, and the hottest planet in the Solar System.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
- Planet · 1 AU
Earth
Our home planet, and so far the only world known to have life and liquid water on its surface.
Image: NASA
- Planet · 1.52 AU
Mars
The red planet, with the tallest volcano and one of the longest canyons in the Solar System.
Image: NASA/JPL/USGS
- Planet · 5.2 AU
Jupiter
The biggest planet, more than twice as massive as all the others combined.
Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
- Planet · 9.54 AU
Saturn
The ringed gas giant, sixth planet from the Sun and light enough to float in a big enough bathtub.
Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
- Planet · 19.19 AU
Uranus
An ice giant that rolls around the Sun on its side.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
- Planet · 30.07 AU
Neptune
The farthest planet from the Sun, with the fastest winds in the Solar System.
Image: NASA/JPL
