The Extraordinary Solar System
The solar system is located in the Milky Way galaxy and formed about 4.6 billion years ago. It is filled with planets, moons the sun, asteroids and comets. The solar system is around 9.09 billion km in diameter.There are 8 planets in the solar system which orbit the sun, an average yellow star. The 8 planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The four inner planets (terrestrial planets) are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Jupiter Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are all gas giant (gaseous planet). Pluto was once thought to be a planet but it is now known to be a dwarf planet.
The largest planet in the solar system is Jupiter which is approximately 133708 km from pole to pole, or 142984 km at the equator. In addition Jupiter has the biggest number of natural satellites in the solar system - 66 known moons.
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| Picture of Jupiter
The smallest planet in the solar system is Mercury. It is around 4879.4 km in diameter and is the nearest planet from the sun. Mercury's orbit around the sun takes about 88 earth days. Mercury has no natural satellites (moons). Both Mercury and Venus are the only planets in the solar system that don't have any natural satellites in orbit around them.
Dwarf Planets Dwarf planets are celestial bodies that are in orbit around the sun the are large enough to they are formed in to a spherical shape by gravity. Some of the dwarf planets in the solar system include Pluto which was first thought to be a planet, Eris, Makemake, Ceres and Haumea. There could still be many more dwarf planets in the solar system that haven't been discovered.The largest dwarf planet in the solar system is Eris which is approximately 2326km in diameter (27% larger than Pluto). Eris has one know moon called Dysnomia.
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