Planets in the Solar System for Kids | Learn about the sun and the eight planets

How much do you know about the solar system? Did you know the sun is a star? How about the fact that other planets have rings like Saturn? In Planets in the Solar System for Kids, you will learn lots of cool facts about the sun and the planets that orbit it.

A solar system includes a star and the planets and other space objects that travel around it. Our solar system has eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They all consist of different materials, like gases and rocks. Similarly, the sun is made up of hydrogen and helium gases. All the planets orbit around the sun at different speeds. As a result, some planets take shorter or longer than Earth’s typical 365 to fully revolve around the sun. Mercury only takes 88 days, but Neptune take an entire 165 years to orbit the sun!

The planets also rotate at different speeds. Earth takes 24 hours to rotate, so 24 hours equals a day. Comparing that to other planets, a “day” for Venus equals 243 days, yet Jupiter only takes 9.8 hours. Not all the planets rotate the same way either. Venus rotates in the opposite direction as most of the other planets. And Uranus rotates on its side.

Not all the planets have moons either, such as Venus. And other planets have more than just one. Jupiter has at least 79 moons! Saturn has at least 53 that astronomers have discovered so far. Cool fact about Saturn: Galileo saw Saturn through a telescope way back in the 1600s! Speaking of Saturn, it is known for its beautiful rings. Did you know Uranus and Jupiter have rings, too? Let’s see what else you learn!

We hope you and your student(s) enjoyed learning about our amazing solar system!