In our solar system, the Sun is situated at the center and it is the largest object in this system containing about 99% of the total mass of the system.
Besides the Sun, our solar system also contains nine planets in nearly circular orbits surrounding the Sun. Not only the planets, but comets, asteroids and other bodies also orbit round the Sun.
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The nine planets situated in order of increasing distance from the Sun include Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Of all these nine planets, the Sun consists of nearly 99% of the total mass of the Solar system. Of all, the smallest planet is Pluto and the largest is Jupiter. Among these planets, Earth is the only one planet that is identified to have life forms. In other planets, no sign of life has been identified.
In our solar system, most planets own their own moons or moon and our Earth have one moon only. Some planets like Saturn and Jupiter even have rings surrounding them. Using a sophisticated telescope, the rings of Saturn and Jupiter and the moons can be observed.
Do you know that the sun is very big? Yes, the Sun can accommodate more than a million earths. It is estimated that the age of the Sun is to be 4.5 billion years old and is said to have about the same time to exist before extinction, meaning that it will be shining for another 4.5 billion years.
Despite the larger size of the Sun, it only has two constituents of helium and hydrogen. The Sun consists of about 26% helium and 72% hydrogen. When the hydrogen undergoes thermonuclear reactions it will produce a larger amount of energy and it is the energy that we experience as the sunlight on our Earth. This energy is so powerful and it powers almost all life forms on Earth.
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I used to love to draw the solar system. Great article!