Solar System
You are now at the heart of our solar system. Sol, our sun, is a yellow dwarf star, a hot ball of glowing gases. Its gravity holds the solar system together, keeping everything from the biggest planets to the smallest particles of debris in its orbit. Electric...
Solar System
You are right, it is Mercury. You have just traveled a distance of about 36 million miles (58 million kilometers) or 0.39 AU. The smallest planet in our solar system and the nearest to the Sun, Mercury is only slightly larger than Earth’s Moon. From the surface...
Solar System
Venus, it is! The second planet from the Sun and our closest planetary neighbor, Venus is similar in structure and size to Earth, but it is now a very different world. Venus spins slowly in the opposite direction most planets do. Its thick atmosphere traps heat in a...
Solar System
Well, here we are 93 million miles from the sun or 1 AU. Everybody you know or have known lives on this planet. While Earth is only the fifth largest planet in the solar system, it is the only world in our solar system with liquid water on the surface. Just slightly...
Solar System
Welcome to Mars. The fourth planet from the Sun, Mars is a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere. This dynamic planet has seasons, polar ice caps and weather and canyons and extinct volcanoes, evidence of an even more active past. Mars is one of the...
Solar System
That was a little walk! We are now entering the part of our Solar System where the planets are made of gas. The first planet of this type is named for the head of all the gods in Greek mythology, Jupiter. It is the largest of all the immediate planets, in fact, it is...