The Universe began 13.8 billion years ago in the Big Bang — an ultra-hot expansion of space, time, matter, and energy. Within the first three minutes, hydrogen and helium formed. Over hundreds of millions of years, gravity pulled these gases into the first stars, whose explosions forged every heavier element: carbon, oxygen, iron, silicon. These stellar ashes drifted through space, collected into new clouds, and 4.6 billion years ago one such cloud collapsed to form our Sun and its family of planets. Each world you see above is a frozen record of that long journey — shaped by heat, impacts, chemistry, magnetic fields, and time. Scroll down to explore the full story.
From the Big Bang to the present day — each stage left chemical fingerprints still visible in every planet today.
Composition, temperature, atmosphere, and climate of all eight planets — click any to focus in 3D above.
Select a planet to see the geological and atmospheric eras that shaped it from birth to the present day.