1. Mercury
The smallest planet and the closest to the Sun. Covered in craters, and boiling hot by day but freezing cold at night.
Welcome to the Solar System
Our Solar System is made up of the Sun and everything that travels around it — eight planets, their moons, and millions of lumps of rock and ice.
What you will learn
- Why the Sun is at the centre of everything
- The four rocky planets closest to the Sun
- The four giant planets further out
- How to put the planets in the right order
The Sun
The Sun is a star — a gigantic ball of burning gas. It is by far the biggest thing in the Solar System. If the Sun were hollow, you could fit about one million Earths inside it.
The Sun's gravity is what holds everything else in place. Without it, the planets would simply drift off into space. It also gives us the light and heat that make life on Earth possible.
Did you know?
Light from the Sun takes about 8 minutes to reach Earth. So when you look at the Sun, you
are really seeing how it looked 8 minutes ago.
The Inner Planets
The four planets closest to the Sun are small, solid and rocky. You could stand on all of them — though you certainly would not want to.
2. Venus
Wrapped in thick, poisonous clouds that trap heat. This makes Venus the hottest planet, even though Mercury is nearer the Sun.
3. Earth
Our home, and the only place we know of with liquid water on its surface and living things.
4. Mars
The rusty red planet. It has the tallest volcano in the Solar System and ice at both poles.
The Outer Planets
Beyond Mars the planets become giants. They have no solid surface to stand on — they are made mostly of gas and ice.
5. Jupiter
The biggest planet of all. Its Great Red Spot is a storm that has been raging for hundreds of years.
6. Saturn
Famous for its beautiful rings, which are made of billions of pieces of ice and rock.
7. Uranus
A pale blue-green ice giant. Strangely, it spins on its side, as though it has been tipped over.
8. Neptune
The furthest planet from the Sun, and the windiest — its storms blow faster than a jet aeroplane.
Remember the order
My Very Easy Method Just
Speeds Up Naming — Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
Quiz
Five questions. You need 60% or more to pass, and you can change your answers before you finish.
Your Result
Image credits
All images are in the public domain and were sourced from Wikimedia Commons.
- Earth — “The Earth seen from Apollo 17” by NASA/Apollo 17 crew; taken by either Harrison Schmitt or Ron Evans. Public domain. Source on Wikimedia Commons.
- Jupiter — “Jupiter and its shrunken Great Red Spot” by NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center). Public domain. Source on Wikimedia Commons.
- Mars — “Mars 23 aug 2003 hubble” by NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Public domain. Source on Wikimedia Commons.
- Mercury — “Mercury in true color” by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Arizona State University/Carnegie Institution of Washington. Public domain. Source on Wikimedia Commons.
- Neptune — “Neptune - Voyager 2 (29347980845) flatten crop” by NASA / JPL / Voyager-ISS / Aster Cowart. Public domain. Source on Wikimedia Commons.
- Saturn — “Saturn during Equinox” by NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute. Public domain. Source on Wikimedia Commons.
- Solar System — “Solar sys8” by Harman Smith and Laura Generosa (nee Berwin), graphic artists and contractors to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with . Public domain. Source on Wikimedia Commons.
- Sun — “Ultiwavelength extreme ultraviolet sun” by NASA/Goddard/SDO AIA Team. Public domain. Source on Wikimedia Commons.
- Uranus — “Uranus2” by NASA/JPL-Caltech. Public domain. Source on Wikimedia Commons.
- Venus — “Venus from Mariner 10” by NASA/JPL-Caltech. Public domain. Source on Wikimedia Commons.