Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, nebulae, star clusters and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth (such as the cosmic background radiation). It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the formation and development of the universe.

In our solar system, nine planets circle around our Sun. The Sun sits in the middle while the planets travel in circular paths (called orbits) around it. These nine planets travel in the same direction (counter- clockwise looking down from the Sun's north pole). The picture on the right shows the different paths and positions of each planet.


The solar system is made up of two parts:
The inner solar system contains Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. These four planets are closest to the Sun.
The outer solar system contains Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
The inner planets are separated from the outer planets by the Asteroid Belt.