Most people are familiar with the planets in our solar system, but there’s a lot more to it than that. In addition to planets, there are also moons, asteroids, comets, meteoroids, and dust particles. And everything orbits around the sun.
The sun is huge and very bright. It’s made up of hydrogen and helium gas. The sun gives off heat and light, which is what makes day and night happen on Earth.
There are eight planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Each planet has unique features. For example: Mercury is the closest planet to the sun; Venus is the hottest planet; Earth is the only planet with liquid water; Mars has red rocks; Jupiter is the largest planet; Saturn has rings around it; Uranus spins on its side; Neptune has a blue tint.
Moons orbit around planets. There are over 170 moons in our solar system! The biggest moon is called Ganymede and it orbits Jupiter. Io is another big moon – it’s got volcanoes on it! – and it orbits around Jupiter too. Our moon orbits around Earth. People used to think that only one object could orbit another (like how a moon orbits a planet), but we now know that many objects can orbit each other (like how Pluto and Charon orbit each other).
Asteroids are rocky or icy objects that orbit the sun just like planets do – but they’re much smaller than planets (and they don’t have atmospheres). Most asteroids live in an area between Mars and Jupiter called the asteroid belt. But some asteroids have broken out of their orbital path and crossed into other areas of our solar system (including Earth’s orbit!). That’s how we get Meteor showers! When these space rocks fall through Earth’s atmosphere they burn up from friction – which creates those “shooting stars” you see at night during a meteor shower.
Comets are made of ice and dust particles held together by gravity . They also orbit around the sun just like planets & asteroids do - but their elliptical orbits take them much further away from the sun than most other objects in our solar system . Every so often , a comet will get close enough to the sun for its ice to start melting & vaporizing . This forms a tail of gas