- In Depth | Our Solar System – NASA Solar System Exploration
The planetary system we call home is located in an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity – the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets such as Pluto; dozens of moons; and millions of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids Beyond our own solar system, there
- In Depth | Sun – NASA Solar System Exploration
The Sun is a 4 5 billion-year-old yellow dwarf star – a hot glowing ball of hydrogen and helium – at the center of our solar system It’s about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth and it’s our solar system’s only star Without the Sun’s energy, life as we know it could not exist on our home planet From our vantage point on Earth, the Sun may appear like an
- The Sun By the Numbers - NASA Solar System Exploration
The Sun is the star at the heart of our solar system Its gravity holds the solar system together, keeping everything – from the biggest planets to the smallest bits of debris – in its orbit
- In Depth | Earths Moon – NASA Solar System Exploration
The brightest and largest object in our night sky, the Moon makes Earth a more livable planet by moderating our home planet's wobble on its axis, leading to a relatively stable climate It also causes tides, creating a rhythm that has guided humans for thousands of years The Moon was likely formed after a Mars-sized body collided with Earth several billion years ago Earth's Moon is the only
- Jupiter - NASA Solar System Exploration
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun, and the largest in the solar system – more than twice as massive as the other planets combined
- RPS 3D Viewer - NASA Solar System Exploration
NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system
- Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud - NASA Solar System Exploration
The Kuiper Belt should not be confused with the Oort Cloud, which is a thousand times more distant In 1950, astronomer Jan Oort proposed that certain comets come from a vast, extremely distant spherical shell of icy bodies surrounding the solar system This giant swarm of objects, now named the Oort Cloud, occupies space at a distance between 5,000 and 100,000 astronomical units No objects
- Mars By the Numbers - NASA Solar System Exploration
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest It’s the only planet we know of inhabited entirely by robots
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