Besides the earth, the sun has seven other principal planets in attendance.

These eight planets fall into two classes--the terrestrial planets and the major, or jovian, planets.

The former class comprises Mercury, Venus, the earth, and Mars, and the latter Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

I have named them all in the order of their distance from the sun, beginning with the nearest.
The terrestrial planets, taking their class name from _terra_, the earth, are relatively close to the sun and comparatively small.

The major planets--or the jovian planets, if we give them a common title based upon the name of their chief, Jupiter or Jove--are relatively distant from the sun and are characterized both by great comparative size and slight mean density.