The first Sunshine

Billions of years after the Big Bang - about 5 billion years before our time - our solar system was born.

Right at the beginning, there was a huge fog cloud - a mass of gas and dust. This cloud turned into a series of rings, all circling around the sun and each ring eventually became one of the planets or another of the many things in the sky.

In our own solar system there are about 100 billion comets, 30 000 asteroids, 34 moons, nine planets (of which our Earth is one) as well as a lot of dust and gas and so many fireballs that it is impossible to count them.

But the largest amount of matter - more than all other planets and asteroids combined - makes up our sun.