Our Solar System:
From our small world we have gazed upon the cosmic ocean for
thousands of years. Ancient astronomers observed points of light that
appeared to move among the stars. They called these objects planets,
meaning wanderers, and named them after Roman deities - Jupiter, king of
the gods; Mars, the god of war; Mercury, messenger of the gods; Venus,
the god of love and beauty, and Saturn, father of Jupiter and god of
agriculture. The stargazers also observed comets with sparkling tails,
and meteors or shooting stars apparently falling from the sky.
Since the invention of the telescope, three more planets have been
discovered in our solar system:
Uranus
(1781),
Neptune
(1846), and
Pluto
(1930). In addition, there are thousands of small bodies such as
asteroids
and
comets.
Most of the asteroids orbit in a region between
the orbits of
Mars
and Jupiter, while the home of comets lies far beyond
the orbit of Pluto, in the Oort Cloud.
The four planets closest to the
Sun
-
Mercury,
Venus,
Earth,
and Mars
- are called the terrestrial planets because they have solid rocky
surfaces. The four large planets beyond the orbit of Mars -
Jupiter,
Saturn,
Uranus, and Neptune - are called gas giants. Tiny, distant, Pluto has
a solid but icier surface than the terrestrial planets.
Read More About Our Solar System
Katie, 11, captured the colors and mysteries of our solar system in this impressive illustration. Visit our kid's art gallery for a closer look at how kids see our solar system. 
