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Nevertheless, the search for life on Mars continues, in part because it shows signs of having been wetter in the past. Water is necessary for all known forms of life. It is possible that microscopic life once existed on Mars. Today the surface is too cold and the air is too thin for liquid water to exist there for long. It is also bombarded with ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, which is very harmful to living things.

At the heart of the solar system is our sun. The four planets nearest it are rocky, terrestrial worlds — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. After that are four gas giants — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter lies the asteroid belt, which includes the dwarf planet Ceres. Beyond the orbit of Neptune one finds the disk-shaped Kuiper belt, in which dwarf planet Pluto resides, and far beyond that is the giant, spherical Oort Cloud and the teardrop-shaped heliopause. See the structure of the solar system (infographic).

The planet is one of the brightest objects in the night sky, and even a small telescope can reveal its multicolored stripes. These stripes are bands of clouds being pushed around the planet by strong east-west winds. Jupiter is a world of complex weather patterns. Its most prominent feature is an orange-red oval called the Great Red Spot. The oval is a storm system that has lasted at least 300 years and is bigger across than Earth and Mars combined.