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The solar system in which we live is made up of a star (the Sun), eight planets (including our own, Earth) moons, asteroids and comets.
It is a massive place to exist, with the only known life existing on the third planet from the Sun, our own Earth.
The planets that orbit the Sun are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Between Mars and Jupiter is the Asteroid Belt, a region of many rocks that haven't been able to form into planets because of the magnetic pull of giant Jupiter.
The Sun
The Sun
The Sun is a medium-sized star measuring 1,392,000km across. It also weighs about 2,000 trillion, trillion tonnes even though it is made out of hydrogen and helium, the lightest gases in the Universe.
The Sun's interior is heated by nuclear reactions to temperatures of 15million C.
The heat from the Sun's interior erupts on the surface in patches called granules, and gigantic, flame-like tongues of hot gasesa called solar prominences.
The temperature of the Sun's surface is 6,000C. Each centimetre burns with the brightness of 250,000 candles!
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Mercury
Mercury
Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun. It is the fastest orbiting planet of the solar system, taking just 88 Earth days to do a complete orbit of the star.
It take Mercury 58 days to rotate an orbit once, so a Mercurian days is almost 69 times longer than ours. Temperatures on Mercury vary from -180C at night, to over 400C during the daylight time.
It is one of the four 'rock' planets, the other three being Venus, Earth and Mars.
Twice during its orbit, Mercury gets so close to the Sun and speeds up so much, that the Sun seems to go backwards in the sky.
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Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It shines like a star in the morning and evening sky because its thick atmosphere reflects sunlight brilliantly. Venus is the brightest thing in the sky viewd fromEarth, apart from the Sun and the Moon.
Venus' cloudy atmosphere is a thick mix of carbon dioxide gas and sulphuric acid. Venus is also the hottest planet of our solar system, with a surface temperature of 470C. Venus is so hot because the carbon dioxide in its atmosphere works like the panes of glass in a greenhouse to trap the Sun's heat. This overheating is called a 'greenhouse effect'.
Pressure on the surface of Venus is 90 times greater than that on Earth! Meaning that if you were able to stand on the surface of Venus, you would be instantly crushed!
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Earth
Earth
Earth is our home planet and is the third planet from the Sun, at a distance of around 90million miles. It is the only planet in the solar system, and indeed the Universe, that is know to contain life, in its many forms.
The gases that make up the planet are mainly of nitrogen and oxygen, with carbon dioxide as well. Its land mass is roughly a third of the surface, the other two-thirds being made up of water. Two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen make water, and this is the only planet in the solar system known to have water on it.
There is currently 6 billion humans living on Earth, but life is known to have existed just over 1 billion years ago. Humans are the highest chain in life of the present-day Earth.
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Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth and last of the rock planets to orbit the Sun. It is the only other planet to have either an atmosphere or a daytime temperature close to Earth's.
Mars is called the 'red planet' because of its rusty red colour. This comes from oxidised (rusted) iron in its soil. It takes 587 Earth days to make an orbit of the Sun. It spins on its axis and produces a day, just slightly longer than ours, just over 24 hours.
Mars also has the biggest Volcanic mountain, Olympus Mons, of all the planets in the solar system. It covers the same area as the country of Ireland and is three time bigger than Mount Everest. Volcanos has long since stopped on this planet because its centre core no longer produces molten iron.
There is currently no signs of life on Mars, as over the past 30-odd years we have been sending satellites and probes to check on the planet.
The evidence is growing that Mars was once warmer and wetter than it is now, although scientists cannot say how much water there was, or when and why it dried up.
The 1997 Mars Pathfinder mission showed than many of the rocks on Mars' surface were dumped in their positions by a huge flood at least two billion years ago!
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Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and also the biggest planet in the solar system. It is twice as heavy as all the other planets in the solar system put together.
Jupiter has no surface for anything to land on. It is made mostly of helium gas and hydrogen. The massive pull of the planet's gravity squeezes the hydrogen so hard that it turns liquid.
Jupiter does an orbit within the space of 10 hours (Earth hours). It means that the planet's surface is moving at nearly 50,000km/h
Jupiter has a great red spot . It is a swirl of red clouds measuring more than 40,000km across. The red spot was first noticed in 1664, and has been noticable on the planet ever since.
Jupiter also has 17 moons. One of its moons, Europa, is believed to have an outside layer of complete frozen water, and scuientists are hoping that when the time comes, an exploratory mission will be able to dig be3neath its surface to see if it has any oceans - and life.
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Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet away from the Sun and is the second largest planet in the Solar System.
The most famous feature about Saturn are the rings that circle the planet. These rings are made up mainly of small meteors and dust particles. It takes 29.46 Earth years to orbit the Sun.
It is named after the ancient Roman god of seed time and harvest, and the day 'Saturday' also comes from this.
Saturn is so low in density that if you could find a bath big enough, you would be able to float the planet in a bath of water!
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Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet away from the Sun, and takes 84 Earth years to make an orbit around the Sun.The planet tilts so far on its side, that it seems to roll around the Sun like a gigantic bowl. It is tilted to an angle of 98 degrees, so its equator runs from top to bottom. This angle may have resulted from a collision with a meteor or another planet many eons ago.
The Sun does not set for 20 years on a Uranian summer, and in the winter the darkness lasts for over 20 years. In the planet's spring and autumn, the Sun rises and sets every 9 hours. It also does it backwards!
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Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and last planet of the Solar System. It's Neptunian orbit of the Sun takes over 164 Earth years to complete. It hasn't yet completed an orbit since it was discovered in 1846.Neptune has a surface the same as Uranus - icy cold liquid methane and has an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium.
Neptune has eight moons, each named after characters from Ancient Greek myths: Naiad, Thalassa, Depsoina, Galatea, Larissa, Proteus, Triton and Nereid. Triton makes its orbit of Neptune backwards.
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