Solar System
Our neighborhood: one star, eight planets, hundreds of moons and millions of smaller bodies. Most of what you can see moving in the night sky lives here.
In the Solar System
PlanetsWhich planets are up tonight, and where to lookDwarf planetsPluto, Ceres, Eris and the other small worldsMoonsMoons of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune you can findCometsHow comets work, and the meteor showers they leave behindAsteroidsThe asteroid belt, Ceres and how to spot a moving pointThe MoonPhase, moonrise and moonset tonight
The Sun
The Sun is an ordinary star, about 109 times wider than Earth and roughly 150 million kilometers away. It holds more than 99.8 percent of the Solar System’s mass, and everything else, from Mercury to the comets in the outer dark, orbits it.
Its position decides your whole night: when it sets, when the sky is truly dark, and which planets are hidden in its glare. SkyMate uses the Sun to work out twilight and darkness for your place, and it never offers to point you at the Sun itself. Watching it safely needs a certified solar filter or a projection method; ordinary sunglasses are not enough.
The planets, from the Sun outward
- Mercury · Closest to the Sun · low in twilight
- Venus · The brightest planet · evening or morning
- Earth · The planet you’re standing on
- Mars · The red planet · brightness varies a lot
- Jupiter · Largest planet · four moons in binoculars
- Saturn · The ringed planet · rings in a small telescope
- Uranus · Binoculars from a dark site
- Neptune · Binoculars or a telescope