15 Outer Planet Facts For Kids

1. The outer planets are the four giant planets in our Solar System.
2. The four planets designated as the outer planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
3. Two of the outer planets are gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and the other two are ice giants (Uranus and Neptune).
4. The largest outer planet is Jupiter, and the smallest outer planet is Uranus.
5. The combined surface area of all the outer planets is 46,228,870,252 square miles.
6. The outer planets orbit the Sun slower than the inner planets.
7. The outer planets together account for 99% of the mass orbiting the Sun in our Solar System.
8. 216 of the 219 moons (natural satellites) in our Solar System orbit an outer planet.
9. Saturn has 83 moons, Jupiter has 80 moons, Uranus has 27 moons and Neptune has 14 moons.
10. The closest outer planet to the Sun is Jupiter at 483,638,564 miles or 5.2 astronomical units.
11. The farthest outer planet to the Sun is Neptune at 2,795,173,960 miles or 30.06 astronomical units.
12. The least dense planet in our Solar System is the outer planet Saturn.
13. The planets that have been least explored in our Solar System is the outer planets Uranus and Neptune.
14. There use to be five outer planets when Pluto was still classified as a planet, but in 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefined what a planet was and demoted Pluto to a dwarf planet.
15. Astronomers believe it’s possible more planets are hiding out at the edge of our Solar System. If we discovered another planet, it would be classified as an outer planet or potential create a new classification all together.

Outer Planet Pictures

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the below images will be helpful for your research on the Outer Planets. Below are six pictures of the Outer Planets. These pictures should help you better understand Outer Planets, one of the two regions of our Solar System.

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