THE SOLAR SYSTEM
The solar system means the ‘Family of the Sun’. The sun and the eight planets that revolve around the sun are members of the solar system. The eight planets are-Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Besides the sun and the planets, there are some smaller celestial bodies as well in the solar system. These small bodies are called satellites. The satellites revolve around the planets in the same way as the planets revolve around the sun. Our earth has one satellite which we call the ‘moon’.
The solar system is a part of the Milky Way galaxy. It is about 27,000 light years away from the centre of the Milky Way galaxy. The solar system is about 470 crore years old and is about 1,200 crore km wide.