54°12.0' N; 4°25' W

              Our Local Stellar Neighbourhood

Facts about our Solar System

The Solar System is not limited by the orbits of the outer planets, it is enclosed by a spherical region known as the Oort Cloud (around 1.5ly from the Sun).

Most of the objects that currently orbit the Sun probably formed millions of years ago from matter left over from the Sun's formation.

Our Solar System consists of our Sun and nine planets, their satellites and millions of comets, asteroids and meteoroids.

Comets are small bodies that are made of dust and ice which heat up on approach to the Sun and expel long tails.

Meteoroids are fragments of Asteroids or debris from Comets which heat up on entering Earths atmosphere.

Asteroids are rocky bodies that are up to 1,000 km in diameter.

Facts about our Sun

Nuclear fusion reactions at the Sun's core converts Hydrogen into Helium releasing huge amounts of energy, some of which reaches us as sunlight.

The Sun is a Star at the centre of our Solar System  and is 1.4 million km in diameter.

The Sun has a photosphere temperature of about 5,500 C.

Facts about the Planets

Venus's day is longer than its year. It orbits the Sun every 225 days but takes 243 days to rotate on its axis.

Mercury's surface is pitted by millions of craters named after famous composers, writers and poets.

Mars is red because its surface is covered in Iron Oxide dust.