By Mike Crystal
Updated Mar 24, 2022
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The term "solar system" refers to the Sun and everything that orbits it under its gravity. This includes eight planets, a dwarf planet, an asteroid belt, countless comets, and a variety of smaller bodies. Earth’s position in this flattened, disk‑like structure has made life possible as we know it.
The solar system comprises eight planets and one dwarf planet—Pluto, which was reclassified in 2006 because it behaves more like a large comet than a true planet. The four inner planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—are called terrestrial planets. They are relatively small, rocky, and similar in composition to Earth. The four outer planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—are known as Jovian or gas‑giant planets. They are large, primarily gaseous, and possess distinct characteristics that set them apart from the inner world.
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, orbiting at an average distance of 93 million miles (149.6 million kilometres). At this distance, sunlight takes roughly eight minutes to reach us. As you move further out from the Sun, the spacing between planets increases dramatically. Jupiter sits about five times farther from the Sun than Earth, while Neptune is nearly thirty times farther away.
