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Solar System
On a bright night one can observe some big stars Shining more brightly than all the stars in the clear sky
These are not stars, but rather planets
They are not self-luminous bodies like stars
Instead, they act like mirrors reflecting the sun's light & heat
The Solar System consists of the sun and Planets revolving around it
And the planets in turn have satellites revolving around them (moons)
In addition to this, the solar system consists of asteroids and comets
So, the Solar System is the Sun, and it's family
Consisting of planets, satellites, asteroids & comets
The planets, in order of distance from the sun are
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,Neptune
And until recently, Pluto
Which in 2006, was declared "not a planet" (Reclassed as a "Dwarf Planet" due to size)
Comparing their mass, it's clear that Jupiter is the largest of all planets
And Mercury is the smallest planet in size
Pluto is the furthest from the Sun And Mercury is the nearest to the Sun
All the planets, are revolving around the sun in different gravitational orbit
In addition to these planets there are small planets called Planetoids or Asteroids
They also move around the sun and many of them are in between Mars and Jupiter
Some believe, that they may be pieces of a large planet That broke up long ago
Our planet, earth, is the only planet which has suitable conditions for living
So far, there is no evidence of life on other planets
And other planets, don't have favourable conditions for life to exist
The planet Mercury, is very close to the sun so it has extremely high temperatures when facing the sun
And extremely low temperatures, when not facing the sun
Venus is covered by thick clouds which prevent sunlight from reaching the surface
Saturn is very cold and is covered by layers of ice several kilometres thick
Mars is the only planet whose atmosphere contains some oxygen and water vapour, other than the earth
However, it's temperature varies from 25C to -40C
So scientists believe some primitive form of life may have existed on Mars before