9781422283714

Int roduct ion O

ur home planet , the Earth, seems a big place to us. And it is bigger than its neighbors in space, the

near planets Mercury, Venus, and Mars. But compared with the planets Jupiter and Saturn, the Earth is a dwar f. Jupiter and Saturn are truly gigantic and are known as the giant planets. Jupiter is largest, more than ten times bigger across than the Earth. It could swallow more than 1,300 bodies the size of the Earth. The only body in the Solar System bigger than Jupiter is the Sun.

Jupiter and Saturn lie beyond Mars in the Solar System, going away from the Sun. They lie much farther away from us than the near planets.