INTRODUCTION
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We belong to the cosmic family called The Solar System. The Sun is the head of this gigantic group of Planets, Moons and countless Asteroids and Comets. The biggest family members are the Planets. You can see five of the Planets with the naked eye because they shine so brightly in our sky. These Planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The other three Planets
¾ Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto ¾ are so far away from the Sun that you need a telescope to see them.Seven of the Planets aren’t alone in space. They have companions called Moons. Earth has one Moon. Saturn has the most
¾ 18 in total. Only Mercury and Venus orbit around the Sun without any Moons.Many other things belong to the Sun’s family. Millions of Asteroids move in a belt between Mars and Jupiter. At the edge of the Solar System, past Pluto, lies millions of ice balls. When one of these ice balls shoots towards the Sun, we see it as a Comet with a glowing tail of gas and dust.
Planets Big and Small
There are two kinds of Planets. The giant Planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, are great balls of gas far from the Sun. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, are small rocky Planets close to the Sun. Pluto doesn’t fit in. It’s a tiny ice world at the edge of the Solar System.
Wow! That’s Incredible!
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You could fit 1400 Earth’s inside Jupiter, and 900 Jupiter’s inside the Sun.