We live on the planet Earth. It is part of a family of bodies and objects that travel together in space. We are part of the sun's system or the solar system. Our sun is a huge yellow star made of glowing gas.
Besides the Earth, there are seven other large bodies called planets that circle the sun in space. The sun lies in the center of our solar system. The planets circle around the sun from different distances. The closest planet to the sun is Mercury. From there, going outward from the sun, are Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Planets orbit the sun and travel in the same direction, which is counterclockwise.
The family of planets nearest the sun are called the rocky planets. They are rock based bodies like our Earth and are sometimes called terrestrial planets. Earth is the largest of the inner planets. Mercury, Venus and Mars complete this family of inner planets.
The gaseous planets are furthest from the sun and each other. They are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. They are the outer planets.
Here is a printout of the rocky inner planets and gaseous outer planets.
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