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  Night Sky Tonight
1. The Universe

2. Solar System

Solar system planets, order and formation: A

guide
References
By Daisy Dobrijevic
Contributions from
Scott Dutfield, Charles Q. Choi, Robert Roy Britt
last updated March 29, 2023
Explore our solar system's planets from the nearest to the sun to the
furthest.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Explore our solar system's planets from the nearest to the sun to the furthest. (Image credit: MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE
PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)

Jump to:
 Types of planets in the solar system
 Solar system FAQs
 What is a planet?
 The sun
 Mercury
 Venus
 Earth
 Mars
 The asteroid belt
 Jupiter
 Saturn
 Uranus
 Neptune
 Trans-Neptunian region
 Pluto
 Planet Nine
 The edge of the solar system
 How did the solar system form?
The order of the planets in the solar system, starting nearest the sun and working outward is
the following: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and then the
possible Planet Nine.

The solar system extends from the sun, goes past the four inner planets, through the asteroid
belt to the four gas giants and on to the disk-shaped Kuiper Belt and far beyond to the
teardrop-shaped heliopause.
Scientists estimate that the edge of the solar system is about 9 billion miles (15 billion
kilometers) from the sun. Beyond the heliopause lies the giant, spherical Oort Cloud, which is
thought to surround the solar system.
Related: 10 incredible volcanoes in our solar system
Ever since the discovery of Pluto in 1930, kids grew up learning that the solar system has nine
planets. That all changed in the late 1990s when astronomers started arguing about whether
Pluto was indeed a planet. In a highly controversial decision, the International Astronomical
Union ultimately decided in 2006 to designate Pluto as a "dwarf planet," reducing the list of
the solar system's true planets to just eight.
If you insist on including Pluto, it would come after Neptune on the list. Pluto is truly way out
there and on a wildly tilted, elliptical orbit (two of the several reasons it was demoted).

Astronomers, however, are still hunting for another possible planet in our solar system, a true
ninth planet, after mathematical evidence of its existence was revealed on Jan. 20, 2016. The
alleged "Planet Nine," also called "Planet X," is believed to be about 10 times the mass of
Earth and 5,000 times the mass of Pluto.
Related: 15 stunning places on Earth that look like they're from another planet
TYPES OF PLANETS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM
The inner four planets closest to the sun — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars — are often
called the "terrestrial planets" because their surfaces are rocky. Pluto also has a rocky, albeit
frozen, surface but has never been grouped with the four terrestrials.
The four large outer worlds — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — are sometimes called
the Jovian or "Jupiter-like" planets because of their enormous size relative to the terrestrial
planets. They're also mostly made of gases like hydrogen, helium and ammonia rather than of
rocky surfaces, although astronomers believe some or all of them may have solid cores.
ORDER OF THE PLANETS BY SIZE (SMALLEST TO LARGEST)
If you were to order the planets by size from smallest to largest they would be Mercury, Mars, Venus,
Earth, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter.

Jupiter and Saturn are sometimes called the gas giants, whereas the more distant Uranus and
Neptune have been nicknamed the ice giants. This is because Uranus and Neptune have more
atmospheric water and other ice-forming molecules, such as methane, hydrogen sulfide and
phosphene, that crystallize into clouds in the planets' frigid conditions, according to the
Planetary Society. For perspective, methane crystallizes at minus 296 Fahrenheit (minus 183
degrees Celsius), according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
SOLAR SYSTEM FAQS ANSWERED BY AN EXPERT
We asked Maximilian Guenther, ESA Project Scientist and mission representative of
ESA's Characterising Exoplanet Satellite (CHEOPS) mission a few frequently asked
questions about solar systems.

Maximilian Guenther
ESA Project Scientist and Mission Representative of CHEOPS
I am the European Space Agency (ESA) Project Scientist and Mission Representative of
CHEOPS (the Charactersing Exoplanets Satellite), and a science team member of several
other space- and ground-based telescopes. I am fascinated by our quest to find Earth-sized
exoplanets around small stars, and the big question of how stellar flares impact their
habitability. Whenever I am not searching for new worlds, I enjoy exploring our own Earth,
travelling, and the outdoors (scuba diving, rock climbing and hiking).

Are there other solar systems in the Milky Way?

Yes, so many! If you had asked anyone just 30 years ago, the answer would have been "we
don’t know". But since then we have discovered already more than 5,000 planets orbiting
stars other than our sun (so-called exoplanets). And since often we find multiple of them
orbiting the same star, we can count about 4,000 other solar systems.

Do solar systems move?

Absolutely, and in many ways. For one, all the exoplanets orbit their stars, just like our
planets (such as Earth and Mars) orbit our sun. In addition, our solar system as well as all of
the others orbit around the black hole in the centre of the Milky Way! But what is even more,
some of these other solar systems actually have not one, but two or more stars (like Tatooine!)
— and then these stars perform a rhythmic dance around each other, together with their
exoplanets.

Do all stars have solar systems?

That is the 1 million Euro question. We are currently just exploring what processes drive the
formation and evolution of other solar systems, and what we can learn from this about our
own solar systems (and Earth’s!) history. We think that many other stars have exoplanets
around them but probably not all of them. In average, studies found there to be about 1 to 2
exoplanet per star — but that is an average! Some stars may have 8, others may have none.

WHAT IS (AND ISN'T) A PLANET?

The IAU defines a true planet as a body that circles the sun without being some other object's
satellite; is large enough to be rounded by its own gravity (but not so big that it begins to
undergo nuclear fusion, like a star); and has "cleared its neighborhood" of most other orbiting
bodies.
But that restrictive definition helped isolate what should and should not be considered a planet
— a problem that arose as astronomers discovered more and more planet-like objects in the
solar system. Pluto was among the bodies that didn't make the cut and was re-classified as a
dwarf planet.

The problem with Pluto, aside from its small size and offbeat orbit, is that it doesn't clear its
neighborhood of debris — it shares its space with lots of other objects in the Kuiper Belt.
Still, the demotion of Pluto remains controversial.

RELATED STORIES:
– 25 weird and wild solar system facts
– Kepler's Third Law: The movement of solar system planets
– Sounds in space: What noises do planets make?
– The 10 most Earth-like exoplanets

The IAU planet definition also put other small, round worlds into the dwarf planet category,
including the Kuiper Belt objects Eris, Haumea and Makemake.
Ceres, a round object in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, also got the boot. Ceres
was considered a planet when it was discovered in 1801, but it was later deemed to be
an asteroid. That still didn't quite fit because it was so much larger (and rounder) than the
other asteroids. Astronomers instead deemed it a dwarf planet in 2006, although some
astronomers like to consider Ceres as a 10th planet (not to be confused with Nibiru or Planet
X).
Below is a brief overview of the eight true planets in our solar system, moving from that
closest to the sun to the farthest from the sun:

THE SUN

An artist's depiction of Parker Solar Probe studying the sun. (Image credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory)
The sun is by far the largest object in our solar system, containing 99.8% of the solar system's
mass. It sheds most of the heat and light that makes life possible on Earth and possibly
elsewhere. Planets orbit the sun in oval-shaped paths called ellipses, with the sun slightly off-
center of each ellipse.
NASA has a fleet of spacecraft observing the sun, such as the Parker Solar Probe, to learn
more about its composition, and to make better predictions about space weather and its effect
on Earth.
Related: Solar eclipses 2023: When, where & how to see them
MERCURY: THE CLOSEST PLANET TO THE SUN
Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. The planet is pictured here as seen by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft. (Image
credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie)
Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and the smallest planet in the solar system — it is only
a little larger than Earth's moon. Mercury zips around the sun in only 88 days and because it is
so close to our star (about two-fifths the distance between Earth and the sun).
Mercury experiences dramatic changes in its day and night temperatures. Mercury
temperatures can reach a scorching 840 F (450 C) in the day, which is hot enough to melt
lead. Meanwhile, on the night side, temperatures drop to minus 290 F (minus 180 C).
MERCURY FACTS
- Discovery: Known to the ancient Greeks and visible to the naked eye
- Named for the messenger of the Roman gods
- Diameter: 3,031 miles (4,878 km)
- Orbit: 88 Earth days
- Day: 58.6 Earth days
- Number of moons: 0

Mercury's atmosphere is very thin and primarily composed of oxygen, sodium, hydrogen,
helium and potassium. Because the atmosphere is so thin it cannot deflect incoming meteors,
its surface is therefore pockmarked with craters, just like our moon.
Over its four-year mission, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft revealed incredible discoveries
that challenged astronomers' expectations. Among those findings was the discovery of water
ice and frozen organic compounds at Mercury's north pole and that volcanism played a major
role in shaping the planet's surface.
Related: How was Mercury formed?
VENUS: EARTH'S SOLAR SYSTEM TWIN

A newly processed (2020) image of Venus that was captured by NASA's Mariner 10 spacecraft. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-
Caltech)
Venus is the second planet from the sun and is the hottest planet in the solar system. Its thick
atmosphere is extremely toxic and composed of sulfuric acid clouds, the planet is an extreme
example of the greenhouse effect.
VENUS FACTS
- Discovery: Known to the ancient Greeks and visible to the naked eye
- Named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty
- Diameter: 7,521 miles (12,104 km)
- Orbit: 225 Earth days
- Day: 241 Earth days
- Number of moons: 0

The average temperature on Venus' surface is 900 F (465 C). At 92 bar, the pressure at the
surface would crush and kill you. And oddly, Venus spins slowly from east to west, the
opposite direction of most of the other planets.
Venus is sometimes referred to as Earth's twin as they are similar in size and radar images
beneath its atmosphere reveal numerous mountains and volcanoes. But beyond that, the
planets could not be more different.

The Greeks believed Venus was two different objects — one in the morning sky and another
in the evening. Because it is often brighter than any other object in the sky, Venus has
generated many UFO reports.
Related: How was Venus formed?
EARTH: OUR HOME PLANET, FILLED WITH LIFE

One of the most detailed images of Earth. The montage was created from photographs taken by the Visible/Infrared Imager
Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument onboard the Suomi NPP satellite. (Image credit: NASA)
Earth, our home planet, is the third planet from the sun. It is a water world with two-thirds of
the planet covered by water. Earth's atmosphere is rich in nitrogen and oxygen and it is the
only world known to harbor life.
EARTH FACTS
- Name originates from "Die Erde," the German word for "the ground."
- Diameter: 7,926 miles (12,760 km)
- Orbit: 365.24 days
- Day: 23 hours, 56 minutes
- Number of moons: 1
Earth rotates on its axis at 1,532 feet per second (467 meters per second) — slightly more
than 1,000 mph (1,600 kph) — at the equator. The planet zips around the sun at more than 18
miles per second (29 km per second).
Related: 10 Earth impact craters you must see
MARS: THE SOLAR SYSTEM'S RED PLANET

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars. The image was created from 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. (Image
credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. It is a cold, desert-like planet covered in iron oxide
dust that gives the planet its signature red hue. Mars shares similarities with Earth: It is rocky,
has mountains, valleys and canyons, and storm systems ranging from localized tornado-like
dust devils to planet-engulfing dust storms.
Substantial scientific evidence suggests that Mars at one point billions of years ago was a
much warmer, wetter world, rivers and maybe even oceans existed. Although Mars'
atmosphere is too thin for liquid water to exist on the surface for any length of time, remnants
of that wetter Mars still exist today. Sheets of water ice the size of California lie beneath
Mars' surface, and at both poles are ice caps made in part of frozen water.
MARS FACTS
- Discovery: Known to the ancient Greeks and visible to the naked eye
- Named for the Roman god of war
- Diameter: 4,217 miles (6,787 km)
- Day: Just more than one Earth day (24 hours, 37 minutes)
- Number of moons: 2

Scientists also think ancient Mars would have had the conditions to support life like bacteria
and other microbes. Hope that signs of this past life — and the possibility of even current
lifeforms — may exist on the Red Planet has driven numerous Mars missions and the Red
Planet is now one of the most explored planets in the solar system.
Related: How long does it take to get to Mars?
THE ASTEROID BELT
Between Mars and Jupiter lies the asteroid belt. Asteroids are minor planets, and according to
NASA there are approximately between 1.1 and 1.9 million asteroids in the main asteroid belt
larger than 0.6 miles (1 km) in diameter and millions more smaller asteroids.
The dwarf planet Ceres, about 590 miles (950 km) in diameter, resides here. A number of
asteroids have orbits that take them closer into the solar system that sometimes lead them to
collide with Earth or the other inner planets.
JUPITER: THE LARGEST PLANET IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
This stunning image of Jupiter, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, was captured on Aug. 25, 2020 and shows ripples in
the planet's atmosphere, Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot and the planet's striking colors. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, STScI,
A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), and the OPAL team)
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and the largest planet in the solar system. The gas giant
is more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined, according to NASA.
JUPITER FACTS
- Discovery: Known to the ancient Greeks and visible to the naked eye
- Named for the ruler of the Roman gods
- Diameter: 86,881 miles (139,822 km)
- Orbit: 11.9 Earth years
- Day: 9.8 Earth hours
- Number of moons: 79 (53 confirmed, 26 provisional)

Its swirling clouds are colorful due to different types of trace gases including ammonia ice,
ammonium hydrosulfide crystals as well as water ice and vapor.

A famous feature in its swirling clouds is Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a giant storm more than
10,000 miles wide, first observed in 1831 by amateur astronomer Samuel Heinrich Schwabe.
It has raged at more than 400 mph for the last 150 years, at least.
Jupiter has a strong magnetic field, and with 75 moons, including the largest moon in the solar
system, Ganymede.
Related: Jupiter's moons: Facts about the largest Jovian moons
SATURN: THE RINGED JEWEL OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of Saturn during its northern hemisphere summer on July 4, 2020. (Image
credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), and the
OPAL Team)
Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun and is famous for its large and distinct ring system.
Though Saturn is not the only planet in the solar system with rings.
SATURN FACTS
- Discovery: Known to the ancient Greeks and visible to the naked eye
- Named for Roman god of agriculture
- Diameter: 74,900 miles (120,500 km)
- Orbit: 29.5 Earth years
- Day: About 10.5 Earth hours
- Number of moons: 82 (53 confirmed, 29 provisional)

DID YOU KNOW?

If you put Saturn in a bathtub it would float as Saturn has an average density that is less than water. You'd
just need to find a bathtub big enough…

When polymath Galileo Galilei first studied Saturn in the early 1600s, he thought it was an
object with three parts: a planet and two large moons on either side. Not knowing he was
seeing a planet with rings, the stumped astronomer entered a small drawing — a symbol with
one large circle and two smaller ones — in his notebook, as a noun in a sentence describing
his discovery. More than 40 years later, Christiaan Huygens proposed that they were rings.
The rings are made of ice and rock and scientists are not yet sure how they formed. The
gaseous planet is mostly hydrogen and helium and has numerous moons.
Related: How far away is Saturn?
URANUS: THE TILTED, SIDEWAYS PLANET IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

X-rays from Uranus have been detected using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. (Image credit: X-ray:
NASA/CXO/University College London/W. Dunn et al; Optical: W.M. Keck Observatory)
Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and is a bit of an oddball.
It has clouds made of hydrogen sulfide, the same chemical that makes rotten eggs smell so
foul. It rotates from east to west like Venus. But unlike Venus or any other planet, its equator
is nearly at right angles to its orbit — it basically orbits on its side.

URANUS FACTS
- Discovery: 1781 by William Herschel (was originally thought to be a star)
- Named for the personification of heaven in ancient myth
- Diameter: 31,763 miles (51,120 km)
- Orbit: 84 Earth years
- Day: 18 Earth hours
- Number of moons: 27

Astronomers believe an object twice the size of Earth collided with Uranus roughly 4 billion
years ago, causing Uranus to tilt. That tilt causes extreme seasons that last 20-plus years, and
the sun beats down on one pole or the other for 84 Earth-years at a time.
The collision is also thought to have knocked rock and ice into Uranus' orbit. These later
became some of the planet's 27 moons. Methane in Uranus' atmosphere gives the planet its
blue-green tint. It also has 13 sets of faint rings.
Uranus holds the record for the coldest temperature ever measured in the solar system —
minus 371.56 degrees F (minus 224.2 degrees C). The average temperature of Uranus is
minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit (-195 degrees Celsius).
Related: How did Uranus form?
NEPTUNE: A GIANT, STORMY BLUE PLANET

Neptune's winds travel at more than 1,500 mph, and are the fastest planetary winds in the solar system. (Image credit:
NASA/JPL)
Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun and is on average the coldest planet in the solar
system. The average temperature of Neptune at the top of the clouds is minus 346 degrees
Fahrenheit (minus 210 degrees Celsius).
NEPTUNE FACTS
- Discovery: 1846
- Named for the Roman god of water
- Diameter: 30,775 miles (49,530 km)
- Orbit: 165 Earth years
- Day: 19 Earth hours
- Number of moons: 14

Neptune is approximately the same size as Uranus and is known for its supersonic strong
winds. The planet is more than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth.

Neptune was the first planet predicted to exist by using math, rather than being visually
detected. Irregularities in the orbit of Uranus led French astronomer Alexis Bouvard to
suggest some other planet might be exerting a gravitational tug. German astronomer Johann
Galle used calculations to help find Neptune in a telescope. Neptune is about 17 times as
massive as Earth and has a rocky core.

Related: There's something strange going on inside Neptune

 TRANS-NEPTUNIAN REGION
Astronomers had long suspected that a band of icy material known as the Kuiper Belt existed
past the orbit of Neptune extending from about 30 to 55 times the distance of Earth to the sun,
and from the last decade of the 20th century up to now, they have found more than a thousand
of such objects. Scientists estimate the Kuiper Belt is likely home to hundreds of thousands of
icy bodies larger than 60 miles (100 km) wide, as well as an estimated trillion or more comets.
Pluto, now considered a dwarf planet, dwells in the Kuiper Belt. It is not alone — recent
additions include Makemake, Haumea and Eris. Another Kuiper Belt object dubbed Quaoar is
probably massive enough to be considered a dwarf planet, but it has not been classified as
such yet. Sedna, which is about three-fourths the size of Pluto, is the first dwarf planet
discovered in the Oort Cloud. NASA's New Horizons mission performed history's first flyby
of the Pluto system on July 14, 2015.
PLUTO: ONCE A PLANET, NOW A DWARF PLANET

An enhanced color global view of Pluto showing the heart-shaped area now named 'Tombaugh Regio'. (Image credit:
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)
Pluto was once the ninth planet from the sun and is unlike any other planet in the solar
system.
PLUTO FACTS
- Discovery: 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh
- Named for the Roman god of the underworld, Hades
- Diameter: 1,430 miles (2,301 km)
- Orbit: 248 Earth years
- Day: 6.4 Earth days
- Number of moons: 5

It is smaller than Earth's moon; its orbit is highly elliptical, falling inside Neptune's orbit at
some points and far beyond it at others; and Pluto's orbit doesn't fall on the same plane as all
the other planets — instead, it orbits 17.1 degrees above or below.

It is smaller than Earth's moon; its orbit is highly elliptical, falling inside Neptune's orbit at
some points and far beyond it at others; and Pluto's orbit doesn't fall on the same plane as all
the other planets — instead, it orbits 17.1 degrees above or below, taking 288 years to
complete a single orbit according to ESA.
From 1979 until early 1999, Pluto had been the eighth planet from the sun. Then, on Feb. 11,
1999, it crossed Neptune's path and once again became the solar system's most distant planet
— until it was redefined as a dwarf planet. It's a cold, rocky world with a tenuous atmosphere.
Scientists thought it might be nothing more than a hunk of rock on the outskirts of the solar
system. But when NASA's New Horizons mission performed history's first flyby of the Pluto
system on July 14, 2015, it transformed scientists' view of Pluto.
Pluto is a very active ice world that's covered in glaciers, mountains of ice water, icy dunes
and possibly even cryovolcanoes that erupt icy lava made of water, methane or ammonia.

Related: Why isn't Pluto a planet anymore?

PLANET NINE: A PLANET SEARCH AT SOLAR SYSTEM'S EDGE

The hypothesized Planet Nine is estimated to be about 10 times the mass of Earth (Image credit: ESO/Tom
Ruen/nagualdesign)
In 2016, researchers proposed the possible existence of a ninth planet, for now, dubbed
"Planet Nine" or Planet X. The planet is estimated to be about 10 times the mass of Earth and
to orbit the sun between 300 and 1,000 times farther than the orbit of the Earth.

Scientists have not seen Planet Nine. They inferred its existence by its gravitational effects on
other objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region at the fringe of the solar system that is home to icy
rocks left over from the birth of the solar system. Also called trans-Neptunian objects, these
Kuiper Belt objects have highly elliptical or oval orbits that align in the same direction.
Scientists Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin at the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena described the evidence for Planet Nine in a study published in the Astronomical
Journal. The research is based on mathematical models and computer simulations using
observations of six other smaller Kuiper Belt Objects with orbits that aligned in a similar
matter.
A hypothesis proposed in September 2019 on the pre-print server arXiv suggests Planet Nine
might not be a planet at all. Instead, Jaku Scholtz of Durham University and James Unwin of
the University of Illinois at Chicago speculate it could be a primordial black hole that formed
soon after the Big Bang and that our solar system later captured, according to Newsweek.
Unlike black holes that form from the collapse of giant stars, primordial black holes are
thought to have formed from gravitational perturbations less than a second after the Big Bang,
and this one would be so small (5 centimeters in diameter) that it would be challenging to
detect.
Astronomers continue to come up empty in their search for Planet 9. A recent 2022 sky
survey using the 6-meter Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) in Chile found thousands of
tentative candidate sources but none could be confirmed.
Related: The nonexistent planet Nibiru
THE EDGE OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Past the Kuiper Belt is the very edge of the solar system, the heliosphere, a vast, teardrop-
shaped region of space containing electrically charged particles given off by the sun. Many
astronomers think that the limit of the heliosphere, known as the heliopause, is about 9 billion
miles (15 billion km) from the sun.

The Oort Cloud lies well past the Kuiper Belt, considered to be located between 2,000 and
5,000 astronomical units (AU) from the sun. The outer edge of the Oort Cloud may reach as
far as 10,000 up to 100,000 AU from the sun. One AU is equal to approximately 93,000,000
miles (150 million kilometers). The Oort Cloud is home to billions, or even trillions of
objects, according to NASA Science.
SOLAR SYSTEM FORMATION AND DISCOVERY
Approximately 4.5 billion years ago a dark cloud of gas and dust began to collapse. As it
shrank, the cloud flattened into a swirling disk known as a solar nebula, according to NASA
Science.
The heat and pressure eventually became so high that hydrogen atoms began to combine to
form helium. The nuclear reactions released vast amounts of energy and our sun was formed.

The sun accumulated about 99% of the available matter and the remaining material further
from the sun formed smaller clumps inside the spinning disk. Some of these clumps gained
enough mass that their gravity shaped them into spheres, becoming planets, dwarf planets and
moons. Other leftover pieces became asteroids, comets and smaller moons that make up our
solar system.
Read more: How did the solar system form?
For millennia, astronomers have followed points of light that seemed to move among the
stars. The ancient Greeks named them planets, meaning "wanderers." Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn were known in antiquity, and the invention of the telescope added the
Asteroid Belt, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and many of these worlds' moons. The dawn of the
space age saw dozens of probes launched to explore our system, an adventure that continues
today.

There have been five human-made objects so far, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, New Horizons,
Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, that have crossed the threshold into interstellar space.

Related: How much of the solar system is made of interstellar stuff?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Explore the solar system in greater detail with these interactive resources from NASA.
Discover the wonders of the solar system with this educational material from ESA. See where
the planets are in their current orbit of the sun with this interactive orrery from NASA.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
NASA solar system exploration
Prialnik, Dina K., Antonella Barucci, and Leslie Young, eds. The Trans-Neptunian Solar
System. Elsevier, 2019.
Pirani, Simona, et al. "Consequences of planetary migration on the minor bodies of the early
solar system." Astronomy & Astrophysics 623 (2019): A169.
Scholtz, Jakub, and James Unwin. "What if Planet 9 is a primordial black hole?." Physical
Review Letters 125.5 (2020): 051103.
Brown, Michael E., and Konstantin Batygin. "Observational constraints on the orbit and
location of planet nine in the outer solar system." The Astrophysical Journal Letters 824.2
(2016): L23.
Raymond, Sean N., et al. "Building the terrestrial planets: Constrained accretion in the inner
Solar System." Icarus 203.2 (2009): 644-662.
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Daisy Dobrijevic
Reference Editor
Daisy Dobrijevic joined Space.com in February 2022 having previously worked for our sister
publication All About Space magazine as a staff writer. Before joining us, Daisy completed
an editorial internship with the BBC Sky at Night Magazine and worked at the National Space
Centre in Leicester, U.K., where she enjoyed communicating space science to the public. In
2021, Daisy completed a PhD in plant physiology and also holds a Master's in Environmental
Science, she is currently based in Nottingham, U.K. Daisy is passionate about all things space,
with a penchant for solar activity and space weather. She has a strong interest in astrotourism
and loves nothing more than a good northern lights chase!
With contributions from
 Scott DutfieldContributor
 Charles Q. ChoiContributing Writer
 Robert Roy BrittChief Content Officer, Purch
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