Solar System Facts
Our Solar System is made up of the sun, eight planets and their moons along with some other heavenly objects and material. Those are asteroids, meteoroids, and comets.
The sun is at the center of our solar system and all the planets move around it in their own paths, that is Orbits. Our planets names are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Beyond Neptune, there is one more planet named Pluto. That is also called Dwarf planet.
Solar System Quick Facts
Age: 4.6 Billion Years
Total Planets: 8
Dwarf Planets: 5
Total Number of Moons: 181
Number of Asteroids: 552,894
Number of Comets: 3,083
Diameter: 18.75 trillion kilometers
(11.65 trillion miles)
Do you know, what is star? Stars are balls of fire and the sun is also a star?
Then why stars are so tiny and the sun is bigger than those stars. Because tiny stars are very, very far from us. The sun is the closest star to the earth. That is why it looks big.
Planets do not have their own light. They get light from the sun.
FACT 1. The age of the solar system is about 4.6 billion years old.
FACT 2. The size of the sun is 332,900 times more massive than the earth.
FACT 3. The temperature at the sun is 27 million degrees F.
FACT 4. Weight on the sun – if something weighs about 100 lbs on earth, it would weigh 2,800 lbs on the sun.
FACT 5. The first four planets nearest the Sun-Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars (also called terrestrial planets), lie in the inner solar system. These are made up of rocks and metal.
FACT 6. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune lie in outer solar system. These are called Gas Giant because it is made up of hydrogen, helium and other gases. They don’t have a solid surface.
FACT 7. The solar system also includes the Kuiper Belt that lies past Neptune’s orbit.
FACT 8. This is a sparsely occupied ring of icy bodies, almost all smaller than the most popular Kuiper Belt Object, dwarf planet Pluto. (for more details).
FACT 9. Beyond the fringes of the Kuiper belt is the Oort Cloud. This giant spherical shell surrounds our solar system.
FACT 10. There are more than 150 known moons in our solar system.
FACT 11. Mercury and Venus’ planets don’t have a single moon.
FACT 12. The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our solar system. It is a spiral shape that contains the countless collections of stars and dust throughout the universe.
FACT 13. There are FIVE dwarf planets in our solar system: Pluto, Eris, Ceres, Haumea and Makemake.
FACT 14. There are three general kinds of galaxies: elliptical, spiral and irregular. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy.
FACT 15. A solar eclipse happens when the moon comes between the sun and Earth.
Solar System Facts Reference Resources: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/menu/solar-system/
You can also find out more about the solar system by clicking here
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