Solar system · 9
The solar system
The Sun, the Moon and the seven other planets — what each one is, what to look for in it, and where it stands in your sky tonight, computed for the minute you read this.
- The Sun Sun An ordinary yellow star, the only one close enough to see as a disc — 109 Earths across, and eight minutes away at the speed of light.
- The Moon Moon Our only natural satellite, probably born from a giant collision with the young Earth. It always keeps the same face to us.
- Planet Mercury The swiftest planet, always close to the Sun — which is why most people have never knowingly seen it.
- Planet Venus The brightest thing in the sky after the Sun and Moon — the morning and evening star, often mistaken for a UFO.
- Planet Mars The red planet, rusty with iron oxide. Every two years or so Earth overtakes it, and it blazes for a few weeks.
- Planet Jupiter The king of the planets: more than twice the mass of all the others combined, with four moons you can see in binoculars.
- Planet Saturn The ringed planet — the most distant one known to the ancients, and the most beautiful sight in a small telescope.
- Planet Uranus The first planet discovered with a telescope — by William Herschel, in his garden in Bath, in 1781.
- Planet Neptune The planet found with a pencil: its position was calculated from the pull it had on Uranus before anyone saw it.