Solar System Facts: A Guide to Things

Orbiting Our Sun

The solar system is made up of the sun and everything that orbits around it,
including planets, moons, asteroids, comets and meteoroids. It extends
from the sun, called Sol by the ancient Romans, and goes past the four
inner planets, through the Asteroid Belt to the four gas giants and on to the
disk-shaped Kuiper Belt and far beyond to the giant, spherical Oort Cloud
and the teardrop-shaped heliopause. Scientists estimate that the edge of
the solar system is about 9 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) from the
sun.

Discovery

For millennia, astronomers have followed points of light that seemed to

move among the stars. The ancient Greeks named these planets, meaning
"wanderers." Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were known in
antiquity, and the invention of the telescope added the Asteroid Belt,
Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and many of these worlds' moons. The dawn of the
space age saw dozens of probes launched to explore our system, an
adventure that continues today. Only one spacecraft so far, Voyager 1, has
crossed the threshold into interstellar space.

Planet Mercury

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. As such, it circles the sun faster
than all the other planets, which is why Romans named it after their swift-
footed messenger god.

The Sumerians also knew of Mercury since at least 5,000 years ago. It was
often associated with Nabu, the god of writing. Mercury was also given
separate names for its appearance as both a morning star and as an
evening star. Greek astronomers knew, however, that the two names
referred to the same body, and Heraclitus, around 500 B.C., correctly
thought that both Mercury and Venus orbited the sun, not Earth.

Planet Venus

Venus, the second planet from the sun, is named for the Roman goddess
of love and beauty. The planet — the only planet named after a female —
may have been named for the most beautiful deity of her pantheon
because it shone the brightest of the five planets known to ancient
astronomers.

In ancient times, Venus was often thought to be two different stars, the
evening star and the morning star — that is, the ones that first appeared at
sunset and sunrise. In Latin, they were respectively known as Vesper and
Lucifer. In Christian times, Lucifer, or "light-bringer," became known as the
name of Satan before his fall. However, further observations of Venus in
the space age show a very hellish environment. This makes Venus a very
difficult planet to observe from up close, because spacecraft do not survive
long on its surface.

Planet Earth

Earth, our home, is the third planet from the sun. It is the only planet known
to have an atmosphere containing free oxygen, oceans of liquid water on
its surface, and, of course, life

Planet Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. Fittingly, it was named after
the king of the gods in Roman mythology. In a similar manner, the ancient
Greeks named the planet after Zeus, the king of the Greek pantheon.

Jupiter helped revolutionize the way we saw the universe and ourselves in
1610, when Galileo discovered Jupiter's four large moons — Io, Europa,
Ganymede and Callisto, now known as the Galilean moons. This was the
first time that celestial bodies were seen circling an object other than Earth,
 major support of the Copernican view that Earth was not the center of the
univers

Planet Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun and the second largest planet in the
solar system. Saturn was the Roman name for Cronus, the lord of the
Titans in Greek mythology. Saturn is the root of the English word
"Saturday."

Saturn is the farthest planet from Earth visible to the naked human eye, but
it is through a telescope that the planet's most outstanding features can be
seen: Saturn's rings. Although the other gas giants in the solar system —
Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune — also have rings, those of Saturn are
without a doubt the most extraordinary.

Planet Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and the first to be discovered by
scientists. Although Uranus is visible to the naked eye, it was long mistaken
as a star because of the planet's dimness and slow orbit. The planet is also
notable for its dramatic tilt, which causes its axis to point nearly directly at
the sun

Planet Neptune
Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun. It was the first planet to get its
existence predicted by mathematical calculations before it was actually
seen through a telescope on Sept. 23, 1846. Irregularities in the orbit
of Uranus led French astronomer Alexis Bouvard to suggest that the
gravitational pull from another celestial body might be responsible. German
astronomer Johann Galle then relied on subsequent calculations to
help spot Neptune via telescope. Previously, astronomer Galileo Galilei
sketched the planet, but he mistook it for a star due to its slow motion. In
accordance with all the other planets seen in the sky, this new world was
given a name from Greek and Roman mythology — Neptune, the Roman
god of the sea.

Dwarf Planet Pluto

Pluto, once considered the ninth and most distant planet from the sun, is
now the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system. It is also one of the
largest known members of the Kuiper Belt, a shadowy zone beyond the
orbit of Neptune thought to be populated by hundreds of thousands of
rocky, icy bodies each larger than 62 miles (100 kilometers) across, along
with 1 trillion or more comets.

The Moon
The moon is the easiest celestial object to find in the night sky — when it's
there. Earth's only natural satellite hovers above us bright and round until it
seemingly disappears for a few nights. The rhythm of the moon's phases
has guided humanity for millennia — for instance, calendar months are
roughly equal to the time it takes to go from one full moon to the next