The Solar System

Introduction
The Major Planets
The Sun
Composition of the Solar System
Theory of Origin

Introduction

The Solar System consists of the Sun and the nine planets which orbit it. It also includes other celestial bodies such as satellites of the planets (moons), asteroids, comets, meteoroids and interplanetary dust and gas. The path a planet follows around the Sun is known as its orbit. The nine planets orbiting the Sun are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Venus, Neptune and Pluto. It takes 365 days or one year, for the earth to orbit the Sun. The planets revolve around the Sun in nearly circular orbits. If looking down from above the Sun's north pole, the planets orbit in a counter clockwise direction. Our Sun is a yellow dwarf and is only one of 100,000 million other stars which form the Milky Way Galaxy. BACK