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All of the planets in the solar system orbit the sun. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are called 'terrestrial planets'. They are mostly made of rock and metal. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are called 'gas giants'. They are mostly composed of gas and they have rings.

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Play | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids

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Learn about NASA space and Earth science with our educational games for kids

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© British Council
The United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities.
A registered charity: 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland).

ICP#: 10044692

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© British Council The United Kingdom's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. A registered charity: 209131 (England and Wales) SC037733 (Scotland). ICP#: 10044692

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Visualize orbits, relative positions and movements of the Solar System objects in an interactive 3D Solar System viewer and simulator.

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The Solar System Planets | Educational Video for Kids

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How to Play

Always wanted to cruise around on the surface of another planet? Well, you're in luck! In Explore Mars, you will be driving a rover on Mars and collecting information about Martian rocks.

First, you will choose a rock to investigate. Then, you'll send a sequence of commands telling the rover how to get to that rock. Don't forget to include the command to analyze the rock! This information will then be sent back to scientists on Earth.

You will earn points every time you successfully analyze a new Martian rock. If you want a high score, plan carefully. Some rocks are worth many more points than others!

The Voice of the Game
Charlene Pfeifer, NASA/JPL Systems Engineer
The encouraging voice guiding you in this game is from Charlene Pfeifer, an engineer who works on the real Mars 2020 mission. Learn more about Charlene and her work in this profile!

About the Perseverance Rover

Perseverance is a rover that NASA landed on Mars in February 2021. The rover will cruise around investigating rocks in a region called Jezero Crater. A very long time ago, Jezero Crater contained a lake that was filled with liquid water - and possibly even living organisms.

By studying the rocks in this crater today, scientists can learn what the environment on Mars was like billions of years ago. Certain kinds of rock in the crater could even hold evidence of past microbial life on Mars!

About Mars Helicopter

When you're playing the game, you might notice a little helicopter joining you on your journey. The real Perseverance rover will have a helicopter friend, too! NASA's solar-powered Mars Helicopter will be the first aircraft to fly on another planet.

The Mars helicopter is an experiment for NASA's scientists and engineers. It will be a test to see if small aircraft can be used to do science on future Mars missions.

Related Resources for Educators

Mission to Mars Student Challenge

Make a Moon or Mars Rover Game

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Drive around the Red Planet and gather information in this fun coding game!

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Color Your Universe: Find the Hidden Objects

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Great work finding all the hidden objects! Want to learn more about some of the things you found? Click on the badges below! Want to print and color the art yourself? Visit Color Your Universe to download and print the coloring pages!

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Articles, games and activities about our planetary neighbors

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If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel - A tediously accurate map of the solar system

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Play Solar System Switch-a-Roo!

Try to find Mars!
Something Something Something Solve another puzzle.
The planets and moons of our solar system come in a wondrous variety of colors and textures. Some appear white, smooth, and calm; others are splotchy with color and dotted with craters and volcanoes. If this is the variety to be found in our solar system, imagine the strange worlds that must exist around other stars!

In spite of how different they look, the Switch-a-Roo game might make you think the Sun, all the planets, and some of their moons were all the same size. Not true!
There are big planets and little planets, big moons and little moons.
Earth seems to us like a pretty big place. Well, Jupiter has 317 times more mass than Earth! Saturn is 95 times as massive as Earth. But even with those giants hogging all that mass, the Sun contains 99.86% of the mass of the entire solar system!

It's a wonder there's any matter at all left over for us!

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Put clues together to find the planets and moons.

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Use your astronaut's rocket boosters to avoid obstacles and collect stars as you explore the planets in our solar system.

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Online 3D simulation of the Solar System and night sky in real time - the Sun, planets, dwarf planets, comets, stars and constellations