WANT TO KNOW

OUR SOL AR
MORE? SYSTEM

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A planet must do three things:
more information and fun facts on our
solar system and all that is
1. It must orbit a star (in our encompasses.
cosmic neighborhood, the Sun.
2. It must be big enough to have
enough gravity to force it into a
spherical shape.
3. It must be big enough that its The solar system is made up of the
gravity cleared away any other sun and everything that orbits
around it, including planets, moons,
objects of a similar size near its
asteroids, comets and meteoroids.
orbit around the Sun. Scientists estimate that the edge of
the solar system is about 9 billion
miles (15 billion kilometers) from
the sun.
Made by: Julia Buffington

Many scientists think our solar system formed from a giant, rotating cloud of gas and dust known as
the solar nebula. As the nebula collapsed because of its gravity, it spun faster and flattened into a disk.
The solar system we call home is located in an
outer spiral arm of the vast Milky Way galaxy.
It consists of the Sun (our star) and everything
that orbits around it. This includes the eight
planets and their natural satellites (such as our
moon), dwarf planets and their satellites, as
well as asteroids, comets and countless particles
of smaller debris. Our solar system is the only
place we know of that harbors life, but the
farther we explore the more we find potential
for life in other places. Both Jupiter’s moon
Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus have
global saltwater oceans under thick, icy shells.
Human beings have studied our solar system
for thousands of years, but it was only in the
last few centuries that scientists started to really
figure out how things work.
THE MILKY WAY
Most of the material was pulled toward the center to form the sun. Other particles within the disk
collided and stuck together to form asteroid-sized objects to become the asteroids,
comets, moons and planets.
TH E SU N:
The sun is by far the largest object in our solar system,
containing 99.8 percent of the solar system's mass. It sheds most
of the heat and light that makes life possible on Earth and
possibly elsewhere. Planets orbit the sun in oval-shaped paths
called ellipses, with the sun slightly off-center of each ellipse.
TH E I NN ER SY S TEM :
The four inner four planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars
— are made up mostly of iron and rock. They are known as
terrestrial or earth-like planets because of their similar size and
composition. Between Mars and Jupiter lies the Asteroid Belt.
Asteroids are minor planets.
TH E O U TER SYS TEM :
The outer planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — are
giant worlds with thick outer layers of gas. Between these
planets, they have dozens of moons with a variety of
compositions, ranging from rocky to icy to even volcanic. Nearly
all the planets' mass is made up of hydrogen and helium, giving
them compositions like that of the sun.