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The universe
The Earth and its moon
Earth, our home in space,
has one natural satellite, our
moon. The moon is about
one quarter the size of Earth
and, on average, it orbits
about 384,000 km
(240,000 miles)
from us.
Astronauts who
have seen Earth
from space are
struck by its beauty.
One described it
as looking like
a Christmas-tree
decoration.
Venus
Earth
Jupiter
Saturn
The solar system
Earth is the third planet from the Sun,
at just the right distance from it to support
life. The eight planets that orbit the Sun (plus
moons, comets, asteroids, meteors, dwarf planets,
dust, and gas) make up our solar system.
Our place in space
Earth seems huge to us – after all, it
can take you a long time just to travel
to school! But Earth is only a very tiny
part of space. So where exactly does it
belong in the Universe?
Earth looks like a swirly
blue marble suspended
in space.
This picture shows where
the planets are located.
None of them, or their
orbits, are drawn to scale.
There used to be a ninth planet, Pluto, but this is now classed as a dwarf planet.
Uranus
Mars
Neptune
Mercury
