Did You Know: Space – What is the solar system?
The solar system is our home in the universe.
It is made up of our sun at the center, with planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets orbiting around it. Our solar system is just one of many similar systems in space.
Asteroids
Asteroids are lumps of rock and metal. They are much smaller than planets.
Comets
Nicknamed “dirty snowballs,” comets are lumps of rock and ice
Where did the solar system come from?
The sun
The solar system began 4.6 billion years ago when the sun was formed. A cloud of gas and dust became squashed together by gravity. It began to draw more material toward it until it became the sun.
Everything else
The bits of material left over after the sun formed clumped together into bigger and bigger pieces. These clumps became planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, and moons.
Kuiper Belt
Toward the edge of the solar system is the Kuiper Belt. It is home to frozen objects, such as comets and dwarf planets.
Orbits
An orbit is the curved path that an object follows in space. The planets and everything else in our solar system orbit the sun.
Planets
There are eight planets in our solar system. Some planets are rocky, such as Earth and Mars, and others are made mostly of gas, such as Jupiter and Saturn.