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The Solar System

© Copyright 2000, Jim Loy

the relative sizes of the planetsThe Solar System is made up of the Sun, nine planets, thousands of minor planets (asteroids), thousands of comets, and much smaller debris. The picture on the left shows the relative sizes (roughly) of the sun, the planets, and the larger moons. Here are the nine planets:

  1. Mercury
  2. Venus, which spins backward
  3. Earth with one moon
  4. Mars with two tiny moons
  5. Jupiter with four large moons and at least 12 smaller moons
  6. Saturn with extensive rings, one large moon, and at least 18 smaller moons
  7. Uranus, which is tilted on its side, and has at least 17 moons
  8. Neptune, with one large moon, and seven small moons
  9. Pluto, very tiny with one moon

The Solar System is spread out over a huge volume. The picture, above left, does not show relative distances.

These are the relative distances between the planets. The red mark on the left is the Sun. Ceres is shown, as representing the minor planets. The blue mark represents the Earth.

relative distances between the planets

Here are some data about the solar system.

  radius
(earth=1)		 mass
(earth=1)		 rotation
period
(days or hours)		 distance
from Sun
(AU)		 period
(years)		 orbital
inclination
(degrees)		 orbital
eccentricity
(circle=0)
Sun 109.2 332,950 24.65-34d        
Mercury 0.382 0.0553 58.646d 0.387 0.2409 7.00 0.206
Venus 0.949 0.815 243.018d 0.723 0.6152 3.39 0.007
Earth 1 1 23.934h 1 1 0 0.017
  Moon 0.273 0.0123 27.32166d   0.0749 18.4-28.6 0.055
Mars 0.533 0.107 24.623h 1.524 1.8809 1.85 0.093
Jupiter 11.19 317.83 9.925h 5.203 11.8622 1.31 0.048
Saturn 9.46 95.16 10.656h 9.539 29.4577 2.49 0.056
Uranus 3.98 14.54 17.24h 19.19 84.014 0.77 0.046
Neptune 3.81 17.15 16.11h 30.06 164.793 1.77 0.010
Pluto 0.181 0.0021 6.387d 39.53 247.7 17.15 0.248

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