Our Amazing Solar System

The Sun is the star at the center of our Solar System. The Sun has no surface, because it is a ball of plasma. The Sun is a fixed star, a star that doesn't orbit other planets, and lasts 10 billion years on average. It's a huge ball of hot, glowing gases that gives us light and warmth. The Sun is so big that you could fit more than one million Earths inside it! It's about 4.6 billion years old and will keep shining for billions more years.

Mercury is the smallest planet and the closest to the Sun. It's a rocky planet covered with craters, just like our Moon! During the day, Mercury gets super hot (up to 430°C), but at night it gets freezing cold (-180°C) because it has almost no atmosphere to trap heat.

Venus is often called Earth's 'sister planet' because they're almost the same size. But Venus is very different! It's covered in thick, toxic clouds that trap heat, making it the hottest planet in our solar system (even hotter than Mercury!). The atmosphere is so thick that the pressure would crush you instantly.

Earth is our home planet and the only place we know of that has life! About 71% of Earth's surface is covered with water, which is why it looks blue from space. Earth has the perfect conditions for life: the right temperature, water, and an atmosphere that protects us from harmful radiation.

Mars is called the 'Red Planet' because of the rusty iron in its soil. It's a cold, desert world with the largest volcano in our solar system (Olympus Mons) and a giant canyon that would stretch across the entire United States! Scientists are very interested in Mars because it might have had water and possibly life long ago.

Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system - so big that all the other planets could fit inside it! It's a gas giant made mostly of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter has a famous feature called the Great Red Spot, which is actually a giant storm that's been raging for hundreds of years. It's bigger than Earth!

Saturn is famous for its beautiful rings! Saturn consists 75% of hydrogen and 25% of helium. These rings are made of billions of pieces of ice and rock, some as small as grains of sand and others as big as houses. Saturn is a gas giant like Jupiter, and it's so light that it would float if you could find a bathtub big enough!

Uranus is an ice giant that looks blue-green because of the methane gas in its atmosphere. What makes Uranus really special is that it spins on its side! Scientists think a huge collision long ago knocked it over. This means that for part of its orbit, one pole faces the Sun for 42 years of constant daylight!

Neptune is the farthest planet from the Sun and it's very cold and windy! It has the strongest winds in the solar system, reaching speeds of up to 2,000 km/hour. Neptune is a beautiful deep blue color because of methane in its atmosphere. It's so far away that it takes 165 Earth years to orbit the Sun once!