Learn it
A solar system is a star and everything that travels around it. Ours has the Sun at the center, eight planets, their moons, dwarf planets like Pluto, and billions of asteroids and comets.
The planets in order from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. A memory trick: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles.
Planets travel around the Sun in paths called orbits. Gravity, an invisible pull, keeps them in orbit.
🔎 Amazing facts
- The Sun holds about 99.8% of all the mass in our solar system.
- Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
🧪 Try it: Planet walk
⚠️ Grown-up helper: Do this in a safe, open space with a grown-up.
- In a long hallway or yard, put a paper Sun at one end.
- Using steps, place the planets: Mercury 1 step, Venus 2, Earth 3, Mars 4, Jupiter 13, Saturn 24, Uranus 49, Neptune 77 steps from the Sun (roughly to scale).
- Walk from the Sun to Neptune.
- Notice how far apart the outer planets are.