A field guide to the solar system, built in three dimensions

The Sun is a G2V yellow dwarf star holding 99.8% of the solar system's total mass. Its core fuses roughly 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium every second, and the resulting light takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth.

Mercury is the smallest and innermost planet in the solar system, a cratered, airless world that swings from 430°C in direct daylight to -180°C at night. Despite being closest to the Sun, it is not the hottest planet — that title belongs to Venus.

Venus is a runaway-greenhouse world wrapped in thick sulfuric acid clouds. Surface pressure is equivalent to being 900 meters underwater on Earth, and the surface itself is hot enough to melt lead — hotter than Mercury despite being farther from the Sun.

Earth is the only known world with liquid water oceans on its surface, a breathable oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere, and life. Its magnetic field, generated by a molten iron core, shields the surface from most solar and cosmic radiation.

The Moon formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago from debris after a Mars-sized body, sometimes called Theia, struck early Earth. It is gravitationally locked, always showing the same face to Earth, and drifts about 3.8 centimeters farther away each year.

Mars is a cold, iron-oxide desert world home to Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system at nearly three times the height of Mount Everest, and dry riverbeds suggesting liquid water once flowed across its surface.

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, a gas giant more massive than all other planets combined. Its Great Red Spot is a storm wider than Earth that has been raging for at least 190 years, possibly for centuries longer.

Saturn is best known for its dramatic ring system, made almost entirely of ice particles ranging from dust-sized grains to house-sized chunks, held in place by a handful of small shepherd moons.

Uranus is tipped over almost completely on its side, likely from an ancient collision, so it essentially rolls around the Sun rather than spinning upright like the other planets. It is classified as an ice giant, built from water, ammonia, and methane ice.

Neptune is the windiest place known in the solar system, with supersonic gusts exceeding 2,000 km/h tearing across an atmosphere fourteen times Earth's mass. It is the outermost recognized planet, orbiting the Sun once every 165 years.

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt and the closest dwarf planet to the Sun. It contains substantial water ice beneath its surface and features mysterious bright spots inside its craters, later identified as salt deposits.

Haumea spins so fast, once every four hours, that it has been stretched into an elongated oval shape like a rugby ball. It orbits beyond Neptune and even has its own faint ring system and two known moons.

Makemake is named after a Rapa Nui creation deity and is a reddish, frozen world coated in methane and ethane ice, orbiting in the Kuiper Belt far beyond Neptune.

Eris is one of the most massive known dwarf planets, covered in highly reflective frozen methane. Its discovery in 2005 directly triggered Pluto's reclassification, since Eris is nearly as large and forced astronomers to define 'planet' more precisely.

Pluto was the ninth planet from 1930 until 2006, when the discovery of the similarly sized Eris led the IAU to formally define 'planet' and reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet. It has a large, heart-shaped nitrogen-ice plain called Sputnik Planitia and five known moons.