This is an image of the planet Uranus taken by the spacecraft Voyager 2 in 1986, processed to look just like it would to human eyes. Voyager 2 is the only space mission to visit Uranus. It passed at a…
Neptune is the furthest planet from the Sun, more than 30 times further away than the Earth. This photograph of Neptune was made from two images taken by the space probe Voyager 2. You can see the Great Dark Spot,…
Our solar system has over a million asteroids. These are rocky lumps that orbit the sun. They’re too small to be planets, but are sometimes called ‘minor planets’. Most asteroids are in a region – the asteroid belt – between…
The red planet has interested people as a possible place for extra-terrestrial life for centuries now. It has loads of interesting geology, and its conditions could allow life to exist, although it wouldn’t be easy! Mars photographed in 2003, on…
Now classified as a dwarf planet, Pluto was known as the 9th planet in the solar system until 2006. In July 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft sent home the first close-up pictures of Pluto and its moons. Click on the…
The Sun is the star in our solar system. It is known as a G class star, a yellow dwarf star. It’s surface temperature is about 5,500 degrees Celsius, and at that temperature, a star will look yellow. In this…
The closest planet to the Sun is naturally very hot. It’s also small and rocky, with loads of craters. The colours shown here are not what Mercury looks like to our eyes. The picture has been coloured to show different…
Earth has one moon (also called a natural satellite). It’s the only other place in the solar system people have visited outside the Earth. Not counting orbiting the Earth in man-made satellites! Moon factfile Position from the sun orbits…
As Jupiter is another gas giant, Tanno and Iguda could only visit some of its moons. In particular, they went to Io and Europa. Io is a rocky, volcanic moon, you can see its Tvashtar volcano exploding near the top…
Exploring Saturn took Tanno and Iguda to the moons Titan and Enceladus. Saturn has more than 80 moons. If you look closely at the image above you might be able to spot some of them. Here Titan has been photographed…
