The Solar System



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The solar system is made up of the Sun, the 9 planets and their known moons, asteroids, comets, dust and gas. The planets, asteroids, and comets travel around the Sun, the center of our solar system.

Most of the bodies in the solar system travel around the Sun along nearly circular paths, and all the planets travel about the Sun in the same direction (the opposite of a clock when viewed from above).

Solar system formation began billions of years ago, when gases and dust began to come together to form the Sun, planets, and other bodies of the solar system.


News from NSF: A Newly Discovered Solar System Contains Scaled-Down Versions of Saturn and Jupiter (2/14/08)

Podcasts from NSF: Systemic Search

Science books available along these topics...

The Solar System



Click on image for full size version (15K)

The solar system is made up of the Sun, the 9 planets and their known moons, asteroids, comets, dust and gas. The planets, asteroids, and comets travel around the Sun, the center of our solar system.

Most of the bodies in the solar system travel around the Sun along nearly circular paths or orbits, and all the planets travel about the Sun in the anticlockwise direction (when viewed from above).

Solar system formation began billions of years ago, when gases and dust began to come together to form the Sun, planets, and other bodies of the solar system.


News from NSF: A Newly Discovered Solar System Contains Scaled-Down Versions of Saturn and Jupiter (2/14/08)

Podcasts from NSF: Systemic Search

Science books available along these topics...

The Solar System



Click on image for full size version (15K)

The solar system is made up of the Sun, the 9 planets and their known moons, asteroids, comets, dust and gas. The planets, asteroids, and comets travel around the Sun, the center of our solar system.

Most of the bodies in the solar system travel around the Sun in elliptical orbits that lie near the ecliptic plane. All the planets orbit the Sun in the anticlockwise direction, and all but Venus, Uranus and Pluto spin on their axes in this direction as well.

Solar system formation began billions of years ago, when gases and dust began to come together to form the Sun, planets, and other bodies of the solar system.


News from NSF: A Newly Discovered Solar System Contains Scaled-Down Versions of Saturn and Jupiter (2/14/08)

Podcasts from NSF: Systemic Search

Science books available along these topics...

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Last modified March 13, 2008 by Becca Hatheway.
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