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Our Solar System has many different kinds of aspects and pieces that come together to make our universe great. In this story, we will explore our solar system, and all the pieces of it, to give you a better understanding of life around us.

The first part of our solar system we will explore is our Sun. The Sun is the most important aspect of our universe and is the center of the entire solar system. The Sun was formed by dust and gas particles floating in free space. The dust and gas was pulled together by gravity which caused a spinning rotation. The gasses formed together to create a star. The Sun is made up of 70% Hydrogen, 20% helium, and 1.5% carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. .5% is just small gases like neon.

The Sun is massive in size, it is about 864,400 miles across, or 109 times the size of the Earth. Over 1,000,000 planets could fit in the Sun and the Sun also contains 99.86% of all mass in our solar system.

The next thing we will discover is the "inner planets." Inner planets are the four planets closest to the Sun and come before the asteroid belt. They are also referred to as terrestrial planets. This means they weren't formed by gaseous components, but more by rock material coming together, heating, and then cooling to make a core. These planets in order are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. We will go further into Mercury and Venus on the next page.

These two planets are Mercury, and Venus. Mercury is made up of 42% Oxygen, 29% Sodium, 22% Hydrogen, 6% Helium, and the rest is other gases. Mercury is the smallest of the 8 planets and lies closest to the Sun. Venus, the second planet closest to the Sun, is made up of 96% carbon dioxide, 3.5% Oxygen, and .5% other gases. It is the third smallest planet and is smaller than the Earth.

Earth and Mars are the final two terrestrial planets. As said before, these planets were made up by colliding rock and very hot temperatures that melted them together. The Earth is made up of 78% Nitrogen, 21% Helium, and 1% of other gases. Earth is the perfect distance from the Sun and is the only known planet to support living creatures. The Earth is bigger than Mars and smaller than Venus. It would take 109 Earths to fill the sun. Mars, the final terrestrial planet, is mostly made up of Carbon Dioxide, just like Venus. Mars is the second smallest planet, and lies closest to the asteroid belt. Mars has 2 moons and Earth obviously has one which we will get to later.

The next place we will visit is the asteroid belt. The asteroid belt falls after Mars and is a composition of dust and gas that weren't taken in by Jupiter's gravitational pull. The leftover dust and gas that wasn't taken in by Jupiter was left in space where it began to orbit like the rest of the planets. This caused a permanent belt of "rocks" known as asteroids.

Now we will venture to the outer "gaseous" planets. These planets do not have as much of a rocky composition as the first four planets, but rather a gaseous composition. The first four planets have gaseous atmosphere's but the core and mantle and things are rocky. These planets are gaseous and are further from the Sun compared to the terrestrial planets.