The Solar System

The solar system is made up of the Sun, planets and dwarf planets and their known moons, asteroids, comets, dust and gas. The planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets travel around the Sun, the center of our solar system.

Most of the bodies in the solar system travel around the Sun in elliptical orbits that lie near the ecliptic plane. All the planets orbit the Sun in the anticlockwise direction (viewed from above), and all but Venus and Uranus spin on their axes in this direction as well.

Solar system formation began billions of years ago, when gases and dust began to come together to form the Sun, planets, and other bodies of the solar system.

Last modified July 15, 2010 by Randy Russell.

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