6.2. Planets

Planets are solid heavenly bodies which revolve round a star (e.g. the sun) in closed elliptical paths. A planet is made of rock and metal. It has no light of its own. A planet shines because it reflects the light of the sun. since the planets are much nearer than the stars, they appear to be big and do not twinkle at night. The planets move round the sun from west to east, so the relative positions of the planets keep changing day by day. The planets are very small as compared to the sun or other stars. There are 8 major planets including the earth. These planets in the order of increasing distances from the sun are given below-

1. Mercury (Budha): it is nearest to the sun.

2. Venus ( Shukra)

3. Earth (Prithvi)

4. Mars (Mangal)

5. Jupiter (Brihaspati): Biggest Planet.

6. Saturn (Shani)

7. Uranus (Arun)

8. Neptune (Varun)