Living busily on Planet Earth, we rarely remember that we actually inhabit only a miniscule part of the universe. In The Planets and the Solar System, Jen Green paints the wider picture, and takes us on a journey across billions of kilometers in our galaxy, from our Sun to near and distant planets. Some, like Mercury, have a molten core surrounded with crust and spins quickly; Jupiter, on the other hand, is a big ball of gas. For 2,500 years, mathematicians and scientists from Pythagoras to Hubble have investigated our universe and found that the dimensions, the temperatures and the speeds (light years!) are unbelievably extreme. A fascinating introduction for younger listeners.