5SCI - The Solar System: Home

• Solar System: The system containing the sun and the bodies held in its gravity field, including the planets, the dwarf planets, the asteroids, and comet.

• Planet: Also called a major planet. Any of the eight celestial bodies, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, that revolve around the sun in elliptical orbits and are lit by light from the sun
• Sun: The star at the centre of our solar system. It is a body made of gas (gaseous), in which energy is generated by thermonuclear reactions. Distance from earth: 149.6 million km.
• Moon: The natural satellite of the earth. Distance from earth: 384, 400 km.
• Rotation: The spinning motion of a body, such as a planet, about an internal axis.
• Orbit: The curved path, usually elliptical, followed by a planet, satellite, comet, etc, in its movement around another celestial body under the influence of gravity.
• Gravity: The force of attraction that moves or tends to move bodies towards the centre of a celestial body, such as the earth or moon.
• Dwarf Planet: Any celestial body within the solar system that is larger than a satellite but smaller than a planet, and that orbits the sun.

The solar system consists of the sun and everything that orbits, or travels around, the sun. This includes the eight planets and their moons, dwarf planets and countless asteroids, comets and other small, icy objects. However, even with all these things, most of the solar system is empty space.

The solar system itself is only a small part of a huge system of stars and other objects called the Milky Way galaxy. The solar system orbits around the centre of the galaxy about once every 225 million years. The Milky Way galaxy is just one of billions of galaxies that in turn make up the universe.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2019.

This video teaches students about the components of the solar system and its relationship to the Sun.

• Rating: 

  E   Production Year: 2017  Duration: 4:21

• This animated Miniclip sheds light on the Sun, the eight planets in our solar system, and other cosmic debris such as comets and asteroids.