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Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity – the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets such as Pluto; dozens of moons; and millions of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids.
The Sun is a 4.5 billion-year-old yellow dwarf star – a hot glowing ball of hydrogen and helium – at the center of our solar system. It’s about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth and it’s our solar system’s only star.
Defining the term planet is important, because such definitions reflect our understanding of the origins, architecture, and evolution of our solar system. Over historical time, objects categorized as planets have changed.
Our solar system’s small bodies – asteroids, comets, and meteors – pack big surprises. These chunks of rock, ice, and metal are leftovers from the formation of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago.
Astronomical units are a useful measure for distances in our solar system, while light years are more practical for distances to the stars. The nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, is seen from Saturn in this image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.
Using data from our spacecraft, scientists gathered sinister sounds from the depths of space. Listen to our playlist filled with new “moans” and “whistles” that would scare the most ghoulish of creatures.
The composition of newer stars was different from that of older stars. Our star, the sun, belongs to the generation of stars created 4.6 billion years ago. A cloud of gas, dust, and frozen ice from between existing stars collapsed to form a nebula.
NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system.
The brightest and largest object in our night sky, the Moon makes Earth a more livable planet by moderating our home planet's wobble on its axis, leading to a relatively stable climate. It also causes tides, creating a rhythm that has guided humans for thousands of years.
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun, and the largest in the solar system – more than twice as massive as the other planets combined.