Our Solar System _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Planets, satelites, asteroids and other bodies
Planets and satellites: The planets orbit the Sun in an elliptical orbital plane, whereas satellites orbit the planets. The planets are divided into three groups:
- Rocky planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. - Gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. - Dwarf planets: Pluto, Ceres, Eris and others.
The Asteroid Belt. This is a donut-shaped region in the Solar System, located between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars where many small bodies orbit our sun. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called asteroids or minor planets.
The Kuiper Belt. Located just past Neptune, in the same orbital plane as the planets (Pluto is considered one of them). It is similar to the asteroid belt, a donut-shaped region of icy bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. but is far larger—20 times as wide and 20–200 times as massive.
This video shows some of the key features that describe the parts of our Solar System.