Our home in space is bigger than almost anything you can imagine. Let's shrink it down so it fits in your head!
Tap Next to begin your journey from the Sun outward.
The Sun is a giant ball of glowing gas at the centre. Everything in the solar system goes around it.
How many Earths do you think would fit across the middle of the Sun? Take a guess, then reveal it!
Tap here to reveal the answer…
You could line up 109 Earths side by side across the Sun. The Sun is the giant of our solar system.
No wrong guesses here — guessing first helps your brain learn. 🧠
Eight planets travel around the Sun. Tap each planet to learn its name. The first four are small and rocky; the last four are big gas giants.
👆 Tap a planet
Tip: from the Sun outward it's Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
The planets aren't squished together like in the picture. The spaces between them are gigantic — mostly empty.
Imagine we shrink the Sun to the size of a basketball 🏀 and put it at your school gate. Where would tiny Earth be?
Space is mostly… space! The solar system is huge and very empty.
Light is the fastest thing there is. It could zoom around the Earth more than 7 times in one second! Yet the Sun is so far away that its light still takes a while to reach us.
How long does sunlight take to travel from the Sun to Earth?
That means you always see the Sun as it looked 8 minutes ago! 😮
Tap the planets in the right order, starting closest to the Sun. If you pick the wrong one, I'll give you a hint!
⭐ The Sun is a giant — about 109 Earths wide.
⭐ 8 planets orbit it: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
⭐ The gaps between planets are enormous and mostly empty.
⭐ The solar system is so big that even light takes 8 minutes just to reach Earth.
The solar system is one of the biggest things you'll ever learn about — and now you've got it in your head. 🚀🌟
Well done, space explorer!