Planet Compare - NASA Solar System Exploration NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system
In Depth | Our Solar System – NASA Solar System Exploration The planetary system we call home is located in an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by gravity – the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets such as Pluto; dozens of moons; and millions of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids Beyond our own solar system, there are more planets than stars in the night sky So far, we have discovered thousands of planetary
In Depth | Kuiper Belt – NASA Solar System Exploration The amount of material in the Kuiper Belt today might be just a small fraction of what was originally there According to one well-supported theory, the shifting orbits of the four giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) could have caused most of the original material -- likely 7 to 10 times the mass of Earth – to be lost
In Depth | Moons – NASA Solar System Exploration In the outer solar system, the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune have dozens of moons As these planets grew in the early solar system, they were able to capture smaller objects with their large gravitational fields
RPS 3D Viewer - NASA Solar System Exploration NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system
In Depth | Enceladus – NASA Solar System Exploration Also, like some other moons in the extensive systems of the giant planets, Enceladus is trapped in what’s called an orbital resonance, which is when two or more moons line up with their parent planet at regular intervals and interact gravitationally Enceladus orbits Saturn twice every time Dione, a larger moon, orbits once
In Depth | Titan – NASA Solar System Exploration In Depth Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is an icy world whose surface is completely obscured by a golden hazy atmosphere Titan is the second largest moon in our solar system Only Jupiter's moon Ganymede is larger, by just 2 percent Titan is bigger than Earth's moon, and larger than even the planet Mercury
In Depth | Saturn Moons – NASA Solar System Exploration The Voyager and Pioneer flybys of the 1970s and 1980s provided rough sketches of Saturn’s moons But during its many years in Saturn orbit, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft discovered previously unknown moons, solved mysteries about known ones, studied their interactions with the rings and uncovered new mysteries – including the discovery on an ocean moon with potential ingredients for life – that will engage a whole new generation of space scientists