Gallery

	Planets Our solar system is thus considered to have eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pursuant to a separate resolution, the IAU has designated three dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto, and Eris. There have been more than two hundred planets discovered orbiting other stars to date more....
	Stars A star is a massive, luminous ball of plasma. Stars group together to form galaxies, and they dominate the visible universe. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth, including daylight. Other stars are visible in the night sky, when they are not outshone by the Sun. More...
	New Zealand Aurora The first definite record of the appearance of the aurora australis was made by Captain Cook in his southern voyages in 1773. More...
	Galaxy Although theoretical, dark matter appears to account for around 90% of the mass of most galaxies. But the nature of these unseen components is not well understood. There is also some evidence that supermassive black holes may exist at the center of many, if not all, galaxies. More...