The Solar System

The Sun and its eight planets

The Sun and everything bound to it: eight planets, their moons, and countless asteroids and comets, all formed together from a cloud of gas and dust about 4.6 billion years ago. The Sun alone holds 99.8 % of the mass, and Jupiter most of what is left.

This map puts each planet where it really is on the date shown, from Mercury out to Neptune, 30 times farther from the Sun than Earth. The distances are to scale, the planets are not: at this scale even Jupiter would be far too small to see. Move the time slider forward and watch the inner planets race round while the outer ones barely move.