Planets

📖 In short

Planets are large round bodies that go around the Sun. The solar system has eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Pluto used to be counted as the ninth planet, then in 2006 scientists classed it as a dwarf planet.

🤩 Did you know?

If the Sun were a big ball, Jupiter would be a little pea tens of meters away.
Jupiter is about a tenth as wide as the Sun.
Astronomers have discovered thousands of planets going around other faraway stars.
Earth is the only planet we know has life on it.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 Rocky planets

The four planets closest to the Sun are small and rocky: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. They have solid surfaces you could stand on.

🔍 Gas and ice giants

The four faraway planets are huge: Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants, and Uranus and Neptune are ice giants. They all have rings and many moons.

💡 Planets don't shine

A star makes its own light, like the Sun, but a planet doesn't shine; it reflects sunlight. That's why we see Venus and Jupiter shining in the sky.

🎯 How did they form?

Scientists think the Sun and the planets formed about 4.6 billion years ago from a huge cloud of gas and dust that clumped together and began to spin.