Explore Solar System Discoveries
![](/images/icons/systemdiscovery_mercury.jpg)
Mercury's orbit is so close to the Sun that it is difficult to see by ground-based observers. ...
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![](/images/icons/systemdiscovery_venus.jpg)
Venus is one of the brightest objects in the sky, so it is clearly visible to the naked eye. ...
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![](/images/icons/systemdiscovery_mars.jpg)
Mars is much like Venus-- it's very bright and therefore easily spotted in the night sky. ...
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![](/images/icons/systemdiscovery_jupiter.jpg)
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It is also one of the brighter objects ...
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![](/images/icons/systemdiscovery_saturn.jpg)
Like the inner planets and Jupiter, Saturn is clearly visible in the night sky. The ancient ...
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![](/images/icons/systemdiscovery_uranus.jpg)
Astronomer William Herschel is credited with the discovery of Uranus in 1781. He was using ...
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![](/images/icons/systemdiscovery_neptune.jpg)
If you had a quiz question in school that asked what year Neptune was discovered, you'd probably ...
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![](/images/icons/systemdiscovery_pluto.gif)
After the discovery of Neptune in 1846, mathematical theory suggested that there still might ...
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![](/images/icons/systemdiscovery_ceres.jpg)
Ceres is the largest asteroid in the main asteroid belt. It was classified as a "dwarf ...
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![](/images/icons/systemdiscovery_haumea.jpg)
Haumea is a dwarf planet in our Solar System. Haumea is the fifth object officially classified ...
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More about Solar System Discoveries
Did you know?
Did you know that there may be 200 or so
dwarf planets in the solar system, out to the
Kuiper Belt?
Do you know how far away the Oort cloud is?
Earth and Space Science Concept of the Day
Do you know what this word or phrase means?
RefractionxRefraction : Refraction is the deflection, or bending, of the ray path of a seismic wave caused by its passage from one material to another having different elastic properties; or the bending of a tsunami wave front owing to variations in the water depth along a
Click on the word to find out!
Research Highlights
Tiny variations in the isotopic composition of silver in meteorites and Earth rocks are helping scientists put together a timetable of how our planet was assembled, beginning 4.568 billion years ago. Results...
Read more![](/olpa/early_water_small.jpg)