The Planets
Tonight's Sky · Looking South
Date Tonight
Time 10:00 PM
Inner Solar System
Outer System & Kuiper Belt
Beyond Jupiter the distances grow enormous — Saturn is twice as far from the Sun as Jupiter, Neptune six times as far. Past Neptune lie the icy worlds of the Kuiper Belt, and far beyond them, Voyager 1. Switch to Solar System Scale above to see the true reach of it all.
Reading this page
  • AU (Astronomical Unit) — the average Earth–Sun distance, about 93 million miles (150 million km). Mercury orbits at 0.4 AU, Saturn at 9.5, Neptune at 30, and Pluto averages 39.
  • Orbit lines — each inner planet's real elliptical path, drawn brighter along the arc just travelled (behind it) and dimmer along the path ahead.
  • Kuiper Belt — a doughnut-shaped zone of icy bodies beyond Neptune, from about 30 to 50 AU. Pluto is its most famous resident; it was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
  • Distance from Earth changes nightly — a planet is closest and brightest near opposition, when Earth passes between it and the Sun.