National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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Mercury Earth Jupiter Uranus Neptune

Venus Mars

Saturn

Our Solar System

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Humans have gazed at the heavens and tried to understand mea, and Makemake — have similar compositions and are solid the two Voyagers exit the Oort Cloud, a vast spherical shell of icy
the cosmos for thousands of years. Ancient civilizations placed with icy surfaces. NASA spacecraft are en route to two of the bodies surrounding the solar system.
great emphasis on careful astronomical observations. Early dwarf planets — the Dawn mission visits Ceres in 2015 and the
Greek astronomers were among the first to leave a written re- As we explore the universe, we wonder: Are there other planets
New Horizons mission reaches Pluto in that same year. Neither
cord of their attempts to explain the cosmos. For them, the uni- where life might exist? Are we alone? These are the great ques-
Ceres nor Pluto has been previously visited by any spacecraft.
verse was Earth, the Sun, the Moon, the stars, and five glowing tions that science is now probing. Only recently have astrono-
points of light that moved among the stars. The Greeks named Moons, rings, and magnetic fields characterize the planets. mers had the tools — sensitive telescopes on Earth and in space
the five points of light — called planetes, or wanderers — after There are 146 known planetary moons, with at least 27 moons — to detect planets orbiting stars in other solar systems.
their gods. The Romans later translated the names into Latin — awaiting official recognition. (Three of the dwarf planets have
moons: Pluto has five, Eris has one, and Haumea has two.) The FAST FACTS
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn — and these are the
names astronomers use today. Planetary features are named by planetary moons are not all alike. One (Saturn’s Titan) has a thick Mean Distance
the International Astronomical Union, founded in 1919. For more atmosphere; another has active volcanoes (Jupiter’s Io). New Equatorial from the Sun
information about the names of planets, moons, and features, moons are frequently discovered, so moon counts can change. Radius km, mi,
consult the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature website at Body km mi millions millions Moons*
Rings are an intriguing planetary feature. From 1659 to 1979,
planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov. Saturn was thought to be the only planet with rings. NASA’s Sun 695,500 432,200 — — —
Voyager missions to the outer planets showed that Jupiter, Mercury 2,440 1,516 57.91 35.98 0
Ancient observers believed that the Sun and all the other ce- Venus 6,052 3,760 108.21 67.24 0
lestial bodies revolved around Earth. Astronomers gradually Uranus, and Neptune also have ring systems.
Earth 6,378 3,963 149.60 92.96 1
realized that the Earth-centered model did not account for the Most of the planets have magnetic fields that extend into space Moon 1,737 1,080 ** ** —
motions of the planets. In the early 17th century, Galileo Gali- and form a magnetosphere around each planet. These magneto- Mars 3,397 2,111 227.94 141.63 2
lei’s discoveries using the recently invented telescope strongly spheres rotate with the planet, sweeping charged particles with Jupiter 71,492 44,423 778.41 483.68 50†
supported the concept of a “solar system” in which all the plan- them. Saturn 60,268 37,449 1,426.73 886.53 53‡
ets, including Earth, revolve around a central star — the Sun. Uranus 25,559 15,882 2,870.97 1,783.94 27
Planetary moons, the rings of Saturn, and more planets were How big is our solar system? To think about the large distances, Neptune 24,764 15,388 4,498.25 2,795.08 13∆
eventually discovered: Uranus (in 1781) and Neptune (1846). The we use a cosmic ruler ­based on the astronomical unit (AU). One *Known moons as of July 2013. The dwarf planet moons are not included
largest known asteroid, Ceres, was discovered between Mars AU is the distance from Earth to the Sun, which is about 150 mil- in this list, nor are asteroid moons.
and Jupiter in 1801. Originally classified as a planet, Ceres is lion kilometers or 93 million miles. Particles from the Sun can **Mean Earth–Moon distance: 384,400 kilometers or 238,855 miles.
reach far beyond the planets, forming a giant bubble called the †Jupiter has 17 moons awaiting official confirmation, bringing the total to 67.
now designated a dwarf planet (but retains its asteroid label),
‡Saturn has 9 moons awaiting official confirmation, bringing the total to 62.
along with Pluto, which was discovered in 1930; Eris, found in heliosphere. The enormous bubble of the heliosphere is created ∆
Neptune has 1 moon awaiting official confirmation, bringing the total to 14.
2003; Haumea, found in 2004; and Makemake, found in 2005. by the solar wind, a stream of charged gas blowing outward from
There may be hundreds of dwarf planets in Pluto’s realm. the Sun. As the Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way, the bub-
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATION
ble of the heliosphere moves also, creating a bow shock ahead
Our solar system formed about 4.6 billion years ago. The four of itself in interstellar space — like the bow of a ship in water The planets are shown in the upper part of the illustration in their
planets closest to the Sun — Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars — — as it crashes into the interstellar gases. The region where the correct order from the Sun and to the same relative size scale.
are called the terrestrial planets because they have solid, rocky solar wind is abruptly slowed by pressure from gas between the If the distances between the planets were shown at the same
surfaces. Two of the outer planets beyond the orbit of Mars — stars is called the termination shock. scale, the illustration would be miles wide! The correct distance
Jupiter and Saturn — are known as gas giants; the more distant scale between planets is shown in the lower part of the illustra-
Uranus and Neptune are called ice giants. Two NASA spacecraft, launched in 1977, have crossed the termi- tion, but the sizes of the planets have been greatly exaggerated
nation shock — Voyager 1 in 2004 and Voyager 2 in 2007. In late (even the Sun would be too small to see at the scale shown). The
Earth’s atmosphere is primarily nitrogen and oxygen. Mer- 2011, Voyager 1 data showed that the spacecraft had entered faint rings of Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune are not shown. Dwarf
cury has a very tenuous atmosphere, while Venus has a thick the outermost region of the heliosphere. By 2013, Voyager 1 was planets Pluto, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake do not appear in
atmosphere of mainly carbon dioxide. Mars’ carbon dioxide about 18 billion kilometers (11 billion miles) from the Sun, and the illustration. The dwarf planet Ceres is not shown separately;
atmosphere is extremely thin. Jupiter and Saturn are composed Voyager 2 was about 15 billion kilometers (9 billion miles) from it resides in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
mostly of hydrogen and helium, while Uranus and Neptune are the Sun. Scientists anticipate that Voyager 1 will cross into inter-
composed mostly of water, ammonia, and methane, with icy stellar space, where gas and dust from other stars are found as FOR MORE INFORMATION
mantles around their cores. The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft well as the enormous Oort Cloud, within a few months to a few solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=SolarSys
visited the gas giants, and Voyager 2 flew by and imaged the ice years. Both spacecraft should have enough electrical power to
giants. Ceres and the outer dwarf planets — Pluto, Eris, Hau- solarsystem.nasa.gov/education/
send data until at least 2020. It will be thousands of years before

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