| Age: 4.6 billion years | | | | |
| | | | People and Space |
| The Solar System we live in contains the Sun, | | | | |
| its eight orbiting planets and any other | | | | British academics have made some of the most |
| astronomical bodies that are under its | | | | important discoveries in the history of |
| gravitational pull such as comets and | | | | space. And in Sir Isaac Newton, we have |
| asteroids. | | | | produced perhaps the most important scientist |
| | | | of all time. |
| Comets originate from the Oort Cloud and | | | | |
| Kuiper Belt, beyond Neptune, while most | | | | The UK has also been responsible for much of |
| asteroids orbit in a region between Mars and | | | | the groundbreaking technology used in today's |
| Jupiter. | | | | missions, and many of the experiments on |
| | | | them. |
| Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars - the four | | | | |
| planets closest to the Sun - are called | | | | However, because we don't currently help to |
| terrestrial planets because they have solid | | | | fund manned missions, only three people born |
| rocky surfaces. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and | | | | in the UK have actually been into space. And |
| Neptune are known as gas giants. Pluto, a | | | | two of those are American citizens.i) In 1991 |
| dwarf planet, has a solid surface but is much | | | | Helen Sharman became the first Briton in |
| icier than the terrestrial planets. | | | | space, when she took part in the Soviet |
| | | | mission Project Juno.ii) A year later, |
| Our Solar System is just one star system | | | | Michael Foale became the first British-born |
| among many within the Milky Way galaxy. There | | | | man in space onboard STS-45. He was also the |
| are 300 billion stars in the Milky Way and | | | | first Briton to complete a space walk.iii) |
| the nearest, Alpha Centauri, is 4.3 light | | | | The bronze medal went to Piers Sellers, |
| years away. One light year is approximately | | | | another dual citizen, who took part in his |
| 9,500 billion km, the distance travelled by | | | | first mission in 2002. Piers returned to |
| light in one year. | | | | space in July 2006 onboard STS-121.iv) In |
| | | | December 2006, Nicholas Patrick became the |
| There are around 100 billion galaxies in our | | | | fourth British-born astronaut in space on |
| Universe. So far, no one has detected life | | | | board STS-116 Discovery. |
| outside our home planet. | | | | |