Our solar system
It’s the only place we’ll ever live, and we still don’t really know that much about its origins and its outer reaches. Here are some statistics about the whole place.
The Sun
The gravitational pull of the sun extends for 30 trillion kilometres.
The Sun turns 600 million tonnes of hydrogen into helium every second. 5 tonnes of pure energy radiates each second as a result of this, releasing more energy than mankind has consumed in its entire existence.
Each particle of sunlight may reach us in 8 minutes from the surface of the sun, but for that particle to reach the surface of the sun from the core takes roughly 10 million years.
The sun is around 1,300,000 km across and accounts for 99.8% of the mass of the solar system.
How far are the planets from the sun?
| Mercury | 60 million km |
Venus |
105 million km |
Earth |
150 million km |
Mars |
225 million km |
Jupiter |
780 million km |
Saturn |
1.425 billion km |
Uranus |
2.94 billion km |
Neptune |
4.5 billion km |
Pluto. Never a planet |
4.4–7.4 billion km |
Asteroid Belt: a failed planet |
345-495 million km |
How heavy are the planets?
Planet |
Earth masses |
Mercury |
0.055 |
Venus |
0.8 |
Earth |
1 |
Mars |
0.1 |
Jupiter |
318 |
Saturn |
95 |
Uranus |
14 |
Neptune |
17 |
Other facts about the planets
Mercury |
The sun goes both east and west on a long (59 day) day and the temperature varies by over 600ºC. |
Venus |
Spins the other way (in relation to its orbit) from all the other planets and is the hottest planet |
Mars |
On a summer’s day, you could wear a t-shirt |
Jupiter |
2½ times the mass of all other planets together |
Saturn |
Would float in water |
Uranus |
Spins on its side |
Neptune |
Is the windiest planet with gales of 2400 Kmh |
Pluto |
Is smaller than the moon and isn’t really a planet. |
The solar system beyond the planets.
The plane of the planets makes up less than 1% of the area of the solar system. Most of the rest is vacuum, except for:
The Kuiper belt and the Oort Cloud, billions of small bodies that extend form the orbiting plane of the planets.
The Kuiper belt extends out from the planetary orbiting plane (it includes Pluto) and gradually broadens and deepens until it becomes the Oort cloud, which envelopes the entire solar system. No evidence has been found that the Oort Cloud exists, but it is thought that it is the starting point for many comets.