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• The solar system consists of the central sun and the celestial bodies orbiting it. There are eight planets, with Pluto recently reclassified as a dwarf planet. Six of the planets bind satellites, or moons, by their gravitational fields. Other major components are the Asteroid belt and the Oort cloud.

• Fast Facts

  1. The word "solar" is derived from the Latin word "sol," which means "sun"The Nine Planets: A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System
  2. Comprises 166 known moonsThe Nine Planets: A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System
  3. Comprises 4 dwarf planetsThe Nine Planets: A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System
  4. Divided in the "Inner Solar System" and the "Outer Solar System"The Nine Planets: A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System
  5. All of the planets' names, except Earth, originate from Greek and Roman mythologyThe Nine Planets: A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System
  6. Planets are categorized as either "terrestrial" and "gaseous"The Nine Planets: A Multimedia Tour of the Solar System

• Planets

  There are eight planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.NASA: Moons and Planets of the Solar System Astronomers categorize them according to their consistence, either as terrestrial or gaseous, and their distance from the sun, either as inner or outer.NASA: Moons and Planets of the Solar System The distance from the sun also determines the surface temperature(unless there are other factors such as cloud cover or internally generated heat on some of the gas giants) and the year's length on each planet. Mercury, the closest planet would be the hottest but since Venus has a thick atmosphere it traps in heat and is slightly hotter than the day side of Mercury,with a year consisting of 88 Earth days. Neptune, the farthest planet, is also the iciest, with a year consisting of 164.79 Earth years.NASA: Moons and Planets of the Solar System

• History and Discovery

  Humanity did not believe in the existence of the solar system for millennia. Earth was considered the center of the universe, with the sun circling the planet.Windows to the Universe: Our Solar System Only after the scientific discoveries of Nicholaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Isaak Newton and Johannes Kepler, has the notion of a heliocentric system been accepted.Windows to the Universe: Our Solar System

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