Solar System

Why Is It Called The “Solar” System?

There are many planetary systems like ours in the universe, with planets orbiting a host star. Our planetary system is named the “solar” system because our Sun is named Sol, after the Latin word for Sun, “Solis,” and anything related to the Sun we call “solar.”

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. In this book, you will find the most important information about these planets.

Moons

There are more than 150 known moons in our solar system and several more awaiting confirmation of a discovery. Of the eight planets, Mercury and Venus are the only ones with no moons. The giant planets grab the most moons. Jupiter and Saturn have long lead our solar system’s moon counts. In some ways, the swarms of moons around these worlds resemble mini versions of our solar system. Pluto, smaller than our own moon, has five moons in its orbit, including the Charon, a moon so large it makes Pluto wobble. Even tiny asteroids can have moons. In 2017, scientists found asteroid 3122 Florence had two tiny moons. The picture below shows different moons in the solar system.