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solar system
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solar system solar system orbits
Understand the relative size of the Sun, the Moon, and other solar system objects
solar system to scale Jovian planets Gaspra Comet Wild 2
Hear about the band of dust and debris left by comets, which are visible as meteors (shooting stars)
Discover how the solar system, which started as a shapeless spherical blob ended up being flat
For Students
solar system to scale
solar system summary
Quizzes
View of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, M31).
Astronomy and Space Quiz
The orbits of the planets and other elements of the solar system, including asteroids, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud, comet
Space Odyssey
Ursa major constellation illustration art. (Big Dipper) stars, space, night sky)
Stars: Explosions in Space
Saturn. Saturn and its rings. Second largest planet of the solar system. Space Art
Planets and the Earth’s Moon
Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer. In 1543 he published, forward proof of a Heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Coloured stipple engraving published London 1802. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi.
All About Astronomy
Related Questions
Read Next
Specially designed Cassini orbits place Earth and Cassini on opposite sides of Saturn's rings, a geometry known as occultation. Cassini conducted the first radio occultation observation of Saturn's rings on May 3, 2005. (solar system, planets)
10 Places to Visit in the Solar System
Background: abstract bubble planets with clouds. astrology, astronomy, atomosphere, big bang, bubbles, fantasy, future, galaxy, universe, stars
9 Ghostly Planets
Remarkable new details of Pluto's largest moon Charon are revealed in this image from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken late on July 13, 2015 from a distance of 289,000 miles
Why Is Pluto No Longer a Planet?
Solar system illustration. (planets; sun)
Why Are Planets Round?
Colorful winter sunset
What's the Difference Between a Solstice and an Equinox?
Discover
Parsons Weems' Fable, oil on canvas by Grant Wood, 1939; in the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Catalog entry: The historian Mason Locke Weems, commonly known by his clerical title, Parson Weems, pulls back a curtain to point at 6-year-old George Washington. Bearing an adult head and holding an axe, George gazes blankly up at his father, Augustine, who questions his son while holding a partially cut cherry tree. All of this takes place in front of a 20th-century brick building, which Wood modeled after his own home in Iowa. The scene illustrates the fable of Washington and the cherry tree, which Weems invented in 1806 for the first president's biography. Wood playfully suggests the artifice of the tale here, presenting the story in the manner of a costumed stage play rather than a real event. Amid the action, two Black figures pick cherries in the background, a reference to Washington' slaveholding past and a reminder of of what often gets left out in historical mythmaking.
Did George Washington Really Say, “I Can’t Tell a Lie”?
Orange basketball on black background and with low key lighting. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society
The 10 Greatest Basketball Players of All Time
Chapter 4 pg 42 - Chapter header of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Published in 1884 by The American Publishing Company
Periods of American Literature
Data analysis of the Super Bowl's "winningest" teams, game locations, MVP winners by position, teams with the most game losses. football, sports, infographic
From Sport to Spectacle: The History of the Super Bowl
Secret Service Agent Listens To Earpiece
Secret Service Code Names of 11 U.S. Presidents
winter ice melting salt on the ground, pattern as background
Why Does Salt Melt Ice?
Shah Jahan. Taj Mahal. Mughal architecture. Emperor Shah Jahan fifth Mughal Emperor (reigned 1628-1658) India, Himachal Pradesh, Basohli or Jammu and Kashmir, Mankot, circa 1690 Drawings; Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper (see notes)
6 Important Mughal Emperors

solar system: Related Content

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News •

Alpha Centauri Particles Already Lurk in Our Solar System, Study Suggests • Feb. 13, 2025, 12:13 AM ET (ScienceAlert)
Astronomers Reveal Largest Collection of Comets Outside Earth’s Solar System Ever Found • Feb. 12, 2025, 4:20 AM ET (Smithsonian Institution)
NASA Captures 'Most Intense Volcanic Eruption Ever' on Jupiter's Moon Io • Jan. 31, 2025, 1:00 AM ET (ScienceAlert)
New Kind of Planet Unlike Anything in Our Solar System Discovered • Jan. 24, 2025, 12:10 AM ET (ScienceAlert)
Seven new dark comets discovered in our solar system • Jan. 21, 2025, 10:35 PM ET (Earth.com)

Photos and Videos

solar system
orbits
solar system to scale
Jovian planets
Gaspra
Comet Wild 2
solar system
Saturn
Images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope of four protoplanetary disks around young stars in the Orion Nebula.
Nicolaus Copernicus: heliocentric system
Understand the relative size of the Sun, the Moon, and other solar system objects
Hear about the band of dust and debris left by comets, which are visible as meteors (shooting stars)
Discover how the solar system, which started as a shapeless spherical blob ended up being flat
View an animation of a brown dwarf surrounded by a swirling disk of planet-building dust
Copernicus's revolutionary theory: The Sun as the center
See All Videos, Images and Interactives →

Related Topics and References

Topics
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Key People

Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler
German astronomer
Galileo
Galileo
Italian philosopher, astronomer and mathematician
Harold C. Urey
American chemist
Laplace, Pierre-Simon, marquis de
Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace
French scientist and mathematician
Gerard Peter Kuiper
American astronomer
Sir Harold Jeffreys
Sir Harold Jeffreys
British astronomer and geophysicist
Jean Richer
French astronomer
Johann Elert Bode
German astronomer
Audouin Dollfus
French astronomer

Related Quizzes and Features

Quiz
Ursa major constellation illustration art. (Big Dipper) stars, space, night sky)
Stars: Explosions in Space
View of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, M31).
Astronomy and Space Quiz
The orbits of the planets and other elements of the solar system, including asteroids, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud, comet
Space Odyssey
Encyclopaedia Britannica thistle graphic to be used with a Mendel/Consumer quiz in place of a photograph.
36 Questions from Britannica’s Most Popular Science Quizzes
Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer. In 1543 he published, forward proof of a Heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Coloured stipple engraving published London 1802. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi.
All About Astronomy
Saturn. Saturn and its rings. Second largest planet of the solar system. Space Art
Planets and the Earth’s Moon
View of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, M31).
Astronomy and Space Quiz
Planet Neptune
Giants of Our Solar System
Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer. In 1543 he published, forward proof of a Heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Coloured stipple engraving published London 1802. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi.
All About Astronomy
Demystified
Remarkable new details of Pluto's largest moon Charon are revealed in this image from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken late on July 13, 2015 from a distance of 289,000 miles
Why Is Pluto No Longer a Planet?
Colorful winter sunset
What's the Difference Between a Solstice and an Equinox?
Solar system illustration. (planets; sun)
Why Are Planets Round?