Planet Compare - NASA Solar System Exploration NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system
In Depth | Our Solar System – NASA Solar System Exploration The planetary system we call home is located in an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity – the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets such as Pluto; dozens of moons; and millions of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids Beyond our own solar system, there
In Depth | Moons – NASA Solar System Exploration In the outer solar system, the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune have dozens of moons As these planets grew in the early solar system, they were able to capture smaller objects with their large gravitational fields
In Depth | Kuiper Belt – NASA Solar System Exploration The amount of material in the Kuiper Belt today might be just a small fraction of what was originally there According to one well-supported theory, the shifting orbits of the four giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) could have caused most of the original material -- likely 7 to 10 times the mass of Earth – to be lost
In Depth | Saturn Moons – NASA Solar System Exploration The Voyager and Pioneer flybys of the 1970s and 1980s provided rough sketches of Saturn’s moons But during its many years in Saturn orbit, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft discovered previously unknown moons, solved mysteries about known ones, studied their interactions with the rings and uncovered new mysteries – including the discovery on an ocean moon with potential ingredients for life
Raw Images – NASA Solar System Exploration This gallery contains the full record of the Cassini spacecraft’s raw images taken from Feb 20, 2004 to Cassini’s end of mission on Sept 15, 2017 The archive will remain available to all as a historical record
In Depth | Enceladus – NASA Solar System Exploration Also, like some other moons in the extensive systems of the giant planets, Enceladus is trapped in what’s called an orbital resonance, which is when two or more moons line up with their parent planet at regular intervals and interact gravitationally Enceladus orbits Saturn twice every time Dione, a larger moon, orbits once
Feedback – NASA Solar System Exploration Planets About Planets PLANETS Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune DWARF PLANETS Pluto Ceres Makemake Haumea Eris
In Depth | Ganymede – NASA Solar System Exploration The discovery eventually led to the understanding that planets in our solar system orbit the Sun, instead of our solar system revolving around Earth (Jupiter now has 53 named moons and 26 provisional moons awaiting confirmation of discovery)
Jupiter - NASA Solar System Exploration Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun, and the largest in the solar system – more than twice as massive as the other planets combined