All eight major planets
This page keeps all eight major planets together in one place. You can scan the rocky inner worlds, compare them with the large outer giants, and open the full page for any planet when you want more detail.
Seeing all eight major planets together makes size, distance, and grouping easier to understand.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars form the inner group. They are smaller, denser, and made mainly of rock and metal. Their surfaces can be described in terms of craters, mountains, dust, clouds, land, or ice.
Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants, while Uranus and Neptune are often called ice giants. These outer worlds are much larger than the inner planets and are better known for thick atmospheres, ring systems, and large groups of moons.
Closest planet to the Sun
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. It is small, rocky, and covered with many impact marks from long ago.
Open page
Hot rocky planet
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is close to Earth in size, but its surface is far hotter because a thick atmosphere traps heat.
Open page
Home planet
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the home of people, animals, and plants. It has liquid water, a protective atmosphere, and many different environments.
Open page
Red rocky planet
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is often called the Red Planet because iron-rich dust gives it a reddish color.
Open page
Largest planet
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet in the Solar System. It is a giant world made mostly of hydrogen and helium.
Open page
Ringed giant planet
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun. It is best known for its bright ring system, but it is also a very large world with many moons.
Open page
Blue-green ice giant
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is often called an ice giant because it contains icy materials in addition to gas.
Open page
Distant ice giant
Neptune is the eighth major planet from the Sun. It is a dark blue ice giant far from the Sun and known for powerful winds.
Open pageStart with the smallest major planet and see what a hot rocky world near the Sun is like.
Use Earth as the comparison point before moving outward to colder, larger, or stranger worlds.
Open Jupiter when you want to see how different a giant planet can be from Earth and Mars.
Finish with Neptune to complete the path from the Sun to the outer edge of the major planets.