CSS pseudo-element Solar System

Sun

Description

The Sun is a star, a hot ball of glowing gases at the heart of our solar system. Its influence extends far beyond the orbits of distant Neptune and Pluto. Without the Sun's intense energy and heat, there would be no life on Earth. And though it is special to us, there are billions of stars like our Sun scattered across the Milky Way galaxy. Source: NASA

Diameter

1,392,000 km

Mercury

Description

Sun-scorched Mercury is only slightly larger than Earth's Moon. Like the Moon, Mercury has very little atmosphere to stop impacts and it is covered with craters. Mercury's dayside is super heated by the Sun, but at night temperatures drop hundreds of degrees below freezing. Ice may even exist in craters. Mercury's egg-shaped orbit takes it around the Sun every 88 days. Source: NASA

Diameter

4,876 km

Distance from sun

57×10⁶ km

Orbital period

88d

Venus

Description

Venus is a dim world of intense heat and volcanic activity. Similar in structure and size to Earth, Venus' thick, toxic atmosphere traps heat in a runaway 'greenhouse effect.' The scorched world has temperatures hot enough to melt lead. Glimpses below the clouds reveal volcanoes and deformed mountains. Venus spins slowly in the opposite direction of most planets. Source: NASA

Diameter

12,107 km

Distance from sun

107×10⁶ km

Orbital period

224d

Earth

Description

Earth is an ocean planet. Our home world's abundance of water - and life - makes it unique in our solar system. Other planets, plus a few moons, have ice, atmospheres, seasons and even weather, but only on Earth does the whole complicated mix come together in a way that encourages life - and lots of it. Source: NASA

Diameter

12,755 km

Distance from sun

150×10⁶ km

Orbital period

365d

Mars

Description

Though details of Mars' surface are difficult to see from Earth, telescope observations show seasonally changing features and white patches at the poles. For decades, people speculated that bright and dark areas on Mars were patches of vegetation, that Mars could be a likely place for life-forms, and that water might exist in the polar caps. When the Mariner 4 spacecraft flew by Mars in 1965, many were shocked to see photographs of a bleak, cratered surface. Mars seemed to be a dead planet. Later missions, however, have shown that Mars is a complex member of the solar system and holds many mysteries yet to be solved. Source: NASA

Diameter

6,794 km

Distance from sun

229×10⁶ km

Orbital period

687d

Asteroids & Meteorids

Jupiter

Description

The most massive planet in our solar system, with four large moons and many smaller moons, Jupiter forms a kind of miniature solar system. Jupiter resembles a star in composition. In fact, if it had been about 80 times more massive, it would have become a star rather than a planet. Source: NASA

Diameter

142,983 km

Distance from sun

777×10⁶ km

Orbital period

4,333d

Saturn

Description

Saturn was the most distant of the five planets known to the ancients. Like Jupiter, Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen and helium. Its volume is 755 times greater than that of Earth. Winds in the upper atmosphere reach 500 meters (1,600 feet) per second in the equatorial region. These super-fast winds, combined with heat rising from within the planet's interior, cause the yellow and gold bands visible in the atmosphere. Source: NASA

Diameter

120,536 km

Distance from sun

1,429×10⁶ km

Orbital period

10,759d

Uranus

Description

The first planet found with the aid of a telescope, Uranus was discovered in 1781 by astronomer William Herschel. The seventh planet from the Sun is so distant that it takes 84 years to complete one orbit. Source: NASA

Diameter

51,117 km

Distance from sun

2,871×10⁶ km

Orbital period

30,684d

Neptune

Description

Nearly 4.5 billion kilometers (2.8 billion miles) from the Sun, Neptune orbits the Sun once every 165 years. It is invisible to the naked eye because of its extreme distance from Earth. Interestingly, the unusual elliptical orbit of the dwarf planet Pluto brings Pluto inside Neptune's orbit for a 20-year period out of every 248 Earth years. Source: NASA

Diameter

49,527 km

Distance from sun

4,496 ×10⁶ km

Orbital period

60,190d

Pluto

Description

Tiny, cold and incredibly distant, Pluto was discovered in 1930 and long considered to be the ninth planet. But after the discoveries of similar intriguing worlds even farther out, Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet. This new class of worlds may offer some of the best evidence of the origins of our solar system. Source: NASA

Diameter

2,390 km

Distance from sun

5,869 ×10⁶ km

Orbital period

90,465d