Solar System

The solar system is our local area of space. It contains the Sun, eight planets, and more than 100 moons, as well as countless comets and asteroids. At it's center is the sun, our nearest star, The sun's gravity keeps everything else trapped in it's orbit. The red line to the right shows the distance of each planet from the sun in millions of kilometers. Mercury is the closest and Neptune is furthest away. Earth is about 150 million kilometers from the sun. All the planets and asteroids go around the Sun in near-circular orbits in the same direction.