Sun and planetary distances. Illustration of the Sun and the eight planets that form part of the solar system, depicted hanging from a mobile, with text labels (along bottom) giving the distances (in kilometres) of the planets from the Sun. Most of the mass of the solar system is found in the Sun, which is not shown to scale here. The eight planets are (from left to right): Neptune, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury, [the Sun], Earth [and the Moon], Jupiter and Uranus. The smaller four planets are rocky planets of the inner solar system. The larger four planets are gas giant planets of the outer solar system. The figure given for the Moon is its distance from the Earth. |