Where did they go?

See those pixels orbiting that yellow center? You guessed it, those are the planets. As large as they can be, they seem like grains of dust, compared with the vastness that is our Solar System.

The rocky planets of the Inner Solar System are orbiting tightly together, while the gas giants are chilling at a comfortable distance from the Sun. Because the gravitational pull of our star isn't powerful out there, these planets can spin slower, so a year here takes decades, or even centuries compared to Earth.

That's more like it!

Now we can see all the planets clearly, from Mercury to Neptune.

Did you know that Mercury is orbiting so closely to the Sun that it's gravitationally locked with the star? Because of the Sun's immense pull, Mercury is always facing with the same side towards it.

By the way, there's one more thing that's distorted in this model. Can you guess what it is?

The Sun is really Huge!

How huge, you ask? It is about 99.8% of the total mass of our Solar System. You could fit about 1 million Earths inside of it, with some room to spare.

Why does this look so different from what we learned in school?

Just like with the planets' orbits, most models compensate for the difference in size between the Sun and the planets in orbit, simply because most planets would be invisible next to it.

Here we go!

Here's a more familiar sight! This model may not be accurate, but it's definitely more useful.

By the way, did you know that our Moon isn't that unique in the Solar System? There are a total of 168 natural satellites orbiting around six of the eight planets. With 79 known moons, Jupiter is the champion of this list.

Not surprising, given its size and gravitational pull.