Our solar system has eight planets that revolve in orbit around the Sun. These planets, in the order from the Sun are:

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

In addition to these eight planets, our solar system also has three “Dwarf Planets” or “Minor Planets”. These smaller planets are Ceres, Pluto and Eris. Pluto was classified as a regular planet until 2006 when it was demoted after a formal definition of what was a planet was established by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are composed of solid rock and are classified by the IAU as “terrestrials”. The next four planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – are composed of various gases and are classified as “gas giants”.