Solar system: Quick Facts

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Last updated

Nov. 11, 2026

News •

A dead star's mysterious rings reveal what could happen when our Sun dies • Nov. 6, 2026, 5:14 PM ET (Science Daily)

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Carries Methane with Record-Breaking Heavy Hydrogen • Nov. 4, 2026, 4:27 PM ET (Sci.News)

All 5 genetic “letters” of DNA and RNA discovered in a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid • Nov. 3, 2026, 6:00 AM ET (Science Daily)

Vera Rubin Observatory Spots Possible New Dwarf Planet beyond Pluto • Nov. 2, 2026, 3:00 AM ET (Sci.News)

Big News: A Giant New Dwarf Planet Candidate May Be Hiding Beyond Pluto • Oct. 30, 2026, 3:00 AM ET (ScienceAlert)

Photos and Videos

Illustration showing the eight planets of the solar system in order from the Sun-Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune-depicted to scale by size, with labeled diameters in miles and kilometers. The Sun is partially visible on the left for comparison.

Illustration of the solar system showing the orbits of the Sun, eight planets, Moon, asteroid belt, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud, Pluto, and a comet, with distances labeled in astronomical units for scale.

solar system to scale

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 →

Topics

Gliese 581

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Key People

Galileo

Galileo

Italian natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician

Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler

German astronomer

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Harold C. Urey

American chemist

Portrait of Pierre Simon Marquis de Laplace wearing formal attire with a sash and star-shaped medal, looking slightly to his left.

Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace

French scientist and mathematician

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Gerard Peter Kuiper

American astronomer

Sir Harold Jeffreys

Sir Harold Jeffreys

British astronomer and geophysicist

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Jean Richer

French astronomer

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Johann Elert Bode

German astronomer

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Audouin Dollfus

French astronomer

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

36 Questions from Britannica’s Most Popular Science Quizzes

Ursa major constellation illustration art. (Big Dipper) stars, space, night sky)

Stars: Explosions in Space

Planet Neptune

Giants of Our Solar System

Saturn. Saturn and its rings. Second largest planet of the solar system. Space Art

Planets and the Earth’s Moon

The orbits of the planets and other elements of the solar system, including asteroids, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud, comet

Space Odyssey

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

View of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, M31).

Astronomy and Space Quiz

View of the Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31, M31).

Astronomy and Space Quiz