Beyond Earth

The planets

Learn what a planet is, and meet the planets of our Solar System.

A planet is a large, nearly spherical (ball-shaped) object that revolves around the Sun. Moving around the Sun is called revolution. The Earth revolves around the Sun, so the Earth is a planet.

The Earth takes nearly one year to go once around the Sun. While it revolves, it also rotates (spins) on its axis. One full rotation takes about 24 hours, and we call this a day.

There are eight planets. In order from the Sun, nearest first:

Mercury (closest)
Venus
Earth (third)
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune (farthest)

The Sun, the planets and the many other objects that move around the Sun together make up our Solar System.

A planet is a large, nearly spherical object that revolves around the Sun, and the eight planets in order from the Sun are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

The planets.

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