How much you know about your Earth ?

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Terra.Detail

What do you know about Venus ?

Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love. It is the brightest natural object in the night sky, except for the Moon, reaching an apparent magnitude of -4.6. Because Venus is an inferior planet from Earth, it never appears to venture far from the Sun: its elongation reaches a maximum of 47.8°. Venus reaches its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise or shortly after sunset, for which reason it is often called the Morning Star or the Evening Star.Detail

Do you know about Mercury

Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the solar system, orbiting the Sun once every 88 days. Mercury is bright when viewed from Earth, ranging from -2.0 to 5.5 in apparent magnitude, but is not easily seen as its greatest angular separation from the Sun is only 28.3°. It can only be seen in morning or evening twilight. Comparatively little is known about it; the first of two spacecraft to visit Mercury was Mariner 10, which mapped only about 45% of the planet’s surface from 1974 to 1975. The second is the MESSENGER spacecraft, which mapped another 30% during its flyby of January 14, 2008. MESSENGER will make two more passes by Mercury, followed by orbital insertion in 2011, and will then survey and map the entire planet.Detail

what is the Planets

A planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science, myth, and religion. The planets were originally seen by many early cultures as divine, or as emissaries of the gods. Even today, many people believe in astrology, which holds that the movement of the planets affects people's lives, although such a causation is rejected by the scientific community. As scientific knowledge advanced, human perception of the planets changed, incorporating a number of disparate objects. Even now there is no uncontested definition of what a planet is. In 2006, the IAU officially adopted a resolution defining planets within the Solar System. This definition has been both praised and criticized, and remains disputed by some scientists.The planets were thought by Ptolemy to orbit the Earth in deferent and epicycle motions. Though the idea that the planets orbited the Sun had been suggested many times, it was not until the 16th century that this view was supported by evidence from the first telescopic astronomical observations, performed by Galileo Galilei. By careful analysis of the observation data, Johannes Kepler found the planets' orbits to be not circular, but elliptical. As observational tools improved, astronomers saw that, like Earth, the planets rotated around tilted axes, and some share such features as ice-caps and seasons. Since the dawn of the Space Age, close observation by probes has found that Earth and the other planets share characteristics such as volcanism, hurricanes, tectonics, and even hydrology. Since 1992, through the discovery of hundreds of extrasolar planets (planets around other stars), scientists are beginning to understand that planets throughout the Milky Way Galaxy share characteristics in common with our own.Planets are generally divided into two main types: large, low-density gas giants, and smaller, rocky terrestrials. Under IAU definitions, there are eight planets in the Solar System. In order from the Sun, they are the four terrestrials, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, then the four gas giants, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Many of these planets are orbited by one or more moons, which can be larger than small planets. As of September 2008, there are known extrasolar planets, ranging from the size of gas giants to that of terrestrial planets. This brings the total number of identified planets to at least 322. The Solar System also contains at least five dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto (formerly considered to be the Solar System's ninth planet), Makemake, Haumea and Eris. No extrasolar dwarf planets have yet been detected.Detail

All About the Solar System

The solar system is the home to the sun, nine planets including the Earth, the 158 known moons that orbit those planets, as well as a countless number of other celestial bodies that exist throughout this vast space. Such celestial bodies include things like asteroids, meteoroids and comets.
Though the events leading up to the formation of the solar system are still being debated, is it believed to be more than 4.6 billion years old!
The word "solar" is derived from the Latin word for sun, Sol, leading to the term solar system, or the system of the sun. The planets that orbit the sun within the solar system include Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and the smallest planet of Pluto. Jupiter is by far the largest with an overall mass of more than three times that of the Earth. The sun itself makes up an estimated 99.86% of the solar system’s total mass.
Gain further insight into the solar system by taking advantage of the solar system articles, solar system pictures or other interactive features below