Mercury offers us a look at a solid world and the forces that shape it. With substantially more matter and a thicker atmosphere, Venus tells an even more complex story.
The moon is our nearest neighbour in space and the keeper of some of our oldest secrets. It is also our cosmic stepping stone to a future among the planets.
The gas giants of the outer solar system, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, represent very different kind of planets, with exotic atmospheres, liquid interiors and rings.
Looking to beyond the rocky and gaseous worlds, to the dark domain of Pluto and beyond, we may find the history of the solar system preserved for us in a deep freeze.