The Solar System
Eight planets, one star, countless moons
Summary
The Solar System is made up of the Sun and the 8 planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids and comets bound to it by gravity. This stylised 3D model visualises the relative positions of the planets and their orbital planes.
In depth
The Solar System formed about 4.6 billion years ago when a giant cloud of gas and dust (the solar nebula) collapsed under its own gravity. The four inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) are dense and rocky; the four outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) are gas and ice giants. Between them lies the asteroid belt, made of rocky fragments. At the edges, the Oort Cloud, billions of icy bodies, is the farthest boundary held by the Sun's gravity. This model is artistic, not to scale: in reality the distances between planets are measured in astronomical units (AU), and the planets would be tiny dots at that scale.
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