Earth Age: Approx. 4.55 billion years Alias: The Blue Planet, Mother Earth Structure: Crust, continental crust, oceanic crust, mantle Appearance: Oceans, atmosphere, clouds, land, ice and snow (70% ocean, 30% land)

Mercury Age: Approx. 4.5 billion years Alias: The Planet Closest to the Sun, Iron Planet Structure: Core, mantle, crust Appearance: Covered in craters and looks very similar to the Moon. Almost no atmosphere.

Venus Age: Approx. 4.5 billion years Alias: Earth's Sister Planet, Morning (Evening) Star Structure: Metallic core, rocky mantle, crust Appearance: A yellow-orange planet covered in a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere and sulfuric acid clouds. A strong greenhouse effect makes the surface temperature a scorching hell of about 460°C.

Mars Age: Approx. 4.5 billion years Alias: The Red Planet Structure: Iron and sulfur core, rocky mantle, crust Appearance: Red soil rich in iron oxide. The North and South poles have white caps of ice and dry ice called "polar caps."

Jupiter Age: Approx. 4.5 billion years Alias: King of the Solar System, Gas Giant Structure: Rocky and metallic core (several times Earth's size) surrounded by an overwhelming amount of liquid hydrogen and helium (gas planet) Appearance: Beautiful brown and white stripes. The southern hemisphere features the "Great Red Spot," a massive vortex large enough to fit the entire Earth. It has thin rings.

Saturn Age: Approx. 4.5 billion years Alias: The Crowned Planet, Gas Giant Structure: Rocky core, layers of metallic and liquid hydrogen Appearance: Its most prominent feature is the overwhelmingly large and beautiful "rings" made of ice particles and rock fragments. The body itself is a slightly flattened, yellowish gas layer.

Uranus Age: Approx. 4.5 billion years Alias: The Sideways Ice Giant Structure: Rocky core, mantle made of methane, water, and ammonia ice (Ice Giant) Appearance: Appears a pale, beautiful, clear blue-green due to methane in the atmosphere. It has thin vertical rings.

Neptune Age: Approx. 4.5 billion years Alias: Planet of Blue Atmosphere and Storms Structure: Rocky core, mantle of water and methane ice, atmosphere of hydrogen and helium Appearance: A deep, mesmerizing cobalt blue, deeper than Uranus. A black vortex called the "Great Dark Spot" can sometimes be seen on the surface.

Moon Age: Approx. 4.5 billion years Alias: Earth's Companion, Queen of the Night Sky Structure: A small iron core at the center, a rocky mantle making up most of it, and a crust of plagioclase and basalt Appearance: Lacking atmosphere and water, craters from meteorite impacts remain unchanged. Features a contrast between the bright white "highlands" and the dark plains called "seas" where lava once flowed.

Age: Approx. 4.6 billion years Alias: Main Sequence Star, Heart of the Solar System Structure: Core, radiative zone, convective zone, photosphere, chromosphere, corona. Has a volume about 1.3 million times that of Earth and accounts for 99.8% of the solar system's mass. Has no solid surface; it is entirely gas. Appearance: A massive, dazzling sphere of light. Surface temperature is about 6,000°C. Features "sunspots" that look dark due to lower temperatures, violent "flares," and "prominences" that erupt like flames.