The Solar System explained simply for kids

The Sun is a star – a gigantic ball of glowing gas. It is so big that more than a million Earths would fit inside it. Without its light and warmth there would be no life on Earth. Never look straight at it – that damages your eyes!

Mercury is the smallest planet and the closest to the Sun. It has no air. That is why it is scorching hot by day and icy cold at night. A year on Mercury lasts only 88 days.

Venus is almost as big as Earth, but nobody would want to live there: thick clouds hold in the heat like a blanket – it is hotter than inside an oven. In the sky we see it as the bright “Evening Star”.

Earth is our home. It is the only planet where we know there is life. It is at just the right distance from the Sun: not too hot and not too cold – so there is liquid water.

Mars is the red planet. It is red because its soil is full of rust. It has one of the highest mountains in the whole Solar System. Robot cars drive around on Mars looking for traces of life.

Jupiter is the biggest planet – all the other planets together would fit inside it. It has no solid ground; it is made of gas. Its red spot is a storm bigger than the whole Earth.

Saturn is the planet with the most beautiful rings. The rings are made of billions of chunks of ice – some as small as grains of sand, some as big as houses. Saturn is so light that it would float in a giant bathtub.

Uranus is a blue-green planet, far away from the Sun. What makes it special: it lies on its side and rolls around the Sun, so to speak. It is icy cold there.

Neptune is the outermost planet and deep blue. The strongest winds in the Solar System blow there – much faster than any storm on Earth. It takes 165 years to go once around the Sun.

The Moon is our companion. It does not shine by itself; it is lit up by the Sun. That is why it sometimes looks round, sometimes like a half and sometimes like a crescent. 12 people have already walked around on it.