Planet overview

All eight major planets

The major planets, clearly grouped and easy to open

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.

The major planets shown together in one lineup.

Seeing all eight major planets together makes size, distance, and grouping easier to understand.

Inner rocky planets

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.

Outer giant planets

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.

Open the planet pages

What readers usually want to know first