Solar System
The Solar System [a] is the Sun and the objects that orbit the Sun. These are a planetary system of eight planets [b] and various secondary bodies, dwarf planets and small Solar System objects that orbit the Sun directly, [c] as well as satellites (moons) that orbit many planets and smaller objects. The Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a giant molecular cloud. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun, with most of the remaining mass contained in Jupiter. The four smaller inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, also called the terrestrial planets, are primarily composed of rock and metal. The four outer planets, called the gas giants, are substantially more massive than the terrestrials. The two largest, Jupiter and Saturn, are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium; the two outermost planets, Uranus and Neptune, are composed largely of substances with relatively high melting points (compared with hydrogen and helium), called ices, such as water, ammonia and methane, and are often referred to separately as "ice giants". All planets have almost circular orbits that lie within a nearly flat disc called the ecliptic plane.
The Solar System also contains regions populated by smaller objects. [c] The asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter, mostly contains objects composed, like the terrestrial planets, of rock and metal. Beyond Neptune's orbit lie the Kuiper belt and scattered disc, linked populations of trans-Neptunian objects composed mostly of ices. Within these populations are several dozen to more than ten thousand objects that may be large enough to have been rounded by their own gravity. [10] Such objects are referred to as dwarf planets. Identified dwarf planets include the asteroid Ceres and the trans-Neptunian objects Pluto and Eris. [c] In addition to these two regions, various other small-body populations including comets, centaurs and interplanetary dust freely travel between regions. Six of the planets, at least three of the dwarf planets, and many of the smaller bodies are orbited by natural satellites, [d] usually termed "moons" after Earth's Moon. Each of the outer planets is encircled by planetary rings of dust and other small objects.
The solar wind, a flow of plasma from the Sun, creates a bubble in the interstellar medium known as the heliosphere, which extends out to the edge of the scattered disc. The Oort cloud, which is believed to be the source for long-period comets, may also exist at a distance roughly a thousand times further than the heliosphere. The heliopause is the point at which pressure from the solar wind is equal to the opposing pressure of interstellar wind. The Solar System is located within one of the outer arms of the Milky Way, which contains about 200 billion stars.
Age Location
System mass Nearest star
Nearest known
Semi-major axis of outer planet (Neptune) Distance to Kuiper cliff No. of stars
1 Sun 8 Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune Possibly several hundred. [1] 5 (Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, Eris) are currently recognized by the IAU No. of known natural 422 (173 of planets [2] and 249 satellites of minor planets [3] )
The Sun and planets of the Solar System. Sizes are to scale, distances and illumination are not. 4.568 billion years Local Interstellar Cloud, Local Bubble, Orion–Cygnus Arm, Milky Way 1.0014 solar masses Proxima Centauri (4.22 ly), Alpha Centauri system (4.37 ly) Alpha Centauri system (4.37 planetary system ly)
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Contents
1 Discovery and exploration 2 Structure and composition 2.1 Distances and scales 3 Formation and evolution 4 Sun 5 Interplanetary medium 6 Inner Solar System 6.1 Inner planets 6.1.1 Mercury 6.1.2 Venus 6.1.3 Earth 6.1.4 Mars 6.2 Asteroid belt 6.2.1 Ceres 6.2.2 Asteroid groups 7 Outer Solar System 7.1 Outer planets 7.1.1 Jupiter 7.1.2 Saturn 7.1.3 Uranus 7.1.4 Neptune 7.2 Centaurs 8 Comets 9 Trans-Neptunian region 9.1 Kuiper belt 9.1.1 Pluto and Charon 9.1.2 Makemake and Haumea 9.2 Scattered disc 9.2.1 Eris 10 Farthest regions 10.1 Heliopause 10.2 Detached objects 10.3 Oort cloud 10.4 Boundaries 11 Galactic context 11.1 Neighbourhood 12 Visual summary 13 See also 14 Notes 15 References 16 External links
Discovery and exploration
Main article: Discovery and exploration of the Solar System
No. of identified
Inclination of invariable plane to the galactic plane Distance to Galactic Center Orbital speed Orbital period
Spectral type Frost line
Distance to heliopause Hill sphere radius
628,057 (as of 2013-12-12) [4]
No. of known minor planets No. of known comets 3,244 (as of 2013-12-12) [4] 19 round satellites
Orbit about the Galactic Center
Star-related properties
For many thousands of years, humanity, with a few notable exceptions, did not recognize the existence of the Solar System. People believed Earth to be stationary at the centre of the universe and categorically different from the divine or ethereal objects that moved through the sky. Although the Greek philosopher Aristarchus of Samos had speculated
on a heliocentric reordering of the cosmos, [11] Nicolaus Copernicus was the first to develop a mathematically predictive heliocentric system. [12] His 17th-century successors, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton, developed an understanding of physics that led to the gradual acceptance of the idea that Earth moves around the Sun and that the planets are governed by the same physical laws that governed Earth. Additionally, the invention of the telescope led to the discovery of further planets and moons. In more recent times, improvements in the telescope and the use of unmanned spacecraft have enabled the investigation of geological phenomena, such as mountains and craters, and seasonal meteorological phenomena, such as clouds, dust storms, and ice caps on the other planets.
Structure and composition
The orbits of the bodies in the Solar System to scale (clockwise from top left)
Most of the planets in the Solar System possess secondary systems of their own, being orbited by planetary objects called natural satellites, or moons (two of which are larger than the planet Mercury), and, in the case of the four gas giants, by planetary rings, thin bands of tiny particles that orbit them in unison. Most of the largest natural satellites are in synchronous rotation, with one face permanently turned toward their parent.
The principal component of the Solar System is the Sun, a G2 main-sequence star that contains 99.86% of the system's known mass and dominates it gravitationally. [13] The Sun's four largest orbiting bodies, the gas giants, account for 99% of the remaining mass, with Jupiter and Saturn together comprising more than 90%. [e]
Most large objects in orbit around the Sun lie near the plane of Earth's orbit, known as the ecliptic. The planets are very close to the ecliptic, whereas comets and Kuiper belt objects are frequently at significantly greater angles to it. [17][18] All the planets and most other objects orbit the Sun in the same direction that the Sun is rotating (counter-clockwise, as viewed from a long way above Earth's north pole). [19] There are exceptions, such as Halley's Comet.
The overall structure of the charted regions of the Solar System consists of the Sun, four relatively small inner planets surrounded by a belt of rocky asteroids, and four gas giants surrounded by the Kuiper belt of icy objects. Astronomers sometimes informally divide this structure into separate regions. The inner Solar System includes the four terrestrial planets and the asteroid belt. The outer Solar System is beyond the asteroids, including the four gas giants. [20] Since the discovery of the Kuiper belt, the outermost parts of the Solar System are considered a distinct region consisting of the objects beyond Neptune. [21]
Kepler's laws of planetary motion describe the orbits of objects about the Sun. Following Kepler's laws, each object travels along an ellipse with the Sun at one focus. Objects closer to the Sun (with smaller semi-major axes) travel more quickly because they are more affected by the Sun's gravity. On an elliptical orbit, a body's distance from the Sun varies over the course of its year. A body's closest approach to the Sun is called its
Although the Sun dominates the system by mass, it accounts for only about 2% of the angular momentum [22] due to the differential rotation within the gaseous Sun. [23] The planets, dominated by Jupiter, account for most of the rest of the angular momentum due to the combination of their mass, orbit, and distance from the Sun, with a possibly significant contribution from comets. [22]
Distances and scales
The distance from Earth to the Sun is 1 astronomical unit (150,000,000 km). For comparison, the radius of the Sun is .0047 AU (700,000 km). Thus, the Sun occupies 0.00001% (10 −5 %) of the volume of a sphere with a radius the size of Earth's orbit, whereas Earth's volume is roughly one million (10 6 ) times smaller than that of the Sun. Jupiter, the largest planet, is 5.2 astronomical units (780,000,000 km) from the Sun and has a radius of 71,000 km (0.00047 AU), whereas the most distant planet, Neptune, is 30 AU (4.5×10 9 km) from the Sun.
With a few exceptions, the farther a planet or belt is from the Sun, the larger the distance between its orbit and the orbit of the next nearer object to the Sun. For example, Venus is approximately 0.33 AU farther out from the Sun than Mercury.
The Solar System [a] is the Sun and the objects that orbit the Sun. These are a planetary system of eight planets [b] and various secondary bodies, dwarf planets and small Solar System objects that orbit the Sun directly, [c] as well as satellites (moons) that orbit many planets and smaller objects. The Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a giant molecular cloud. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun, with most of the remaining mass contained in Jupiter. The four smaller inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, also called the terrestrial planets, are primarily composed of rock and metal. The four outer planets, called the gas giants, are substantially more massive than the terrestrials. The two largest, Jupiter and Saturn, are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium; the two outermost planets, Uranus and Neptune, are composed largely of substances with relatively high melting points (compared with hydrogen and helium), called ices, such as water, ammonia and methane, and are often referred to separately as "ice giants". All planets have almost circular orbits that lie within a nearly flat disc called the ecliptic plane.
The Solar System also contains regions populated by smaller objects. [c] The asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter, mostly contains objects composed, like the terrestrial planets, of rock and metal. Beyond Neptune's orbit lie the Kuiper belt and scattered disc, linked populations of trans-Neptunian objects composed mostly of ices. Within these populations are several dozen to more than ten thousand objects that may be large enough to have been rounded by their own gravity. [10] Such objects are referred to as dwarf planets. Identified dwarf planets include the asteroid Ceres and the trans-Neptunian objects Pluto and Eris. [c] In addition to these two regions, various other small-body populations including comets, centaurs and interplanetary dust freely travel between regions. Six of the planets, at least three of the dwarf planets, and many of the smaller bodies are orbited by natural satellites, [d] usually termed "moons" after Earth's Moon. Each of the outer planets is encircled by planetary rings of dust and other small objects.
The solar wind, a flow of plasma from the Sun, creates a bubble in the interstellar medium known as the heliosphere, which extends out to the edge of the scattered disc. The Oort cloud, which is believed to be the source for long-period comets, may also exist at a distance roughly a thousand times further than the heliosphere. The heliopause is the point at which pressure from the solar wind is equal to the opposing pressure of interstellar wind. The Solar System is located within one of the outer arms of the Milky Way, which contains about 200 billion stars.
Age Location
System mass Nearest star
Nearest known
Semi-major axis of outer planet (Neptune) Distance to Kuiper cliff No. of stars
1 Sun 8 Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune Possibly several hundred. [1] 5 (Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, Eris) are currently recognized by the IAU No. of known natural 422 (173 of planets [2] and 249 satellites of minor planets [3] )
The Sun and planets of the Solar System. Sizes are to scale, distances and illumination are not. 4.568 billion years Local Interstellar Cloud, Local Bubble, Orion–Cygnus Arm, Milky Way 1.0014 solar masses Proxima Centauri (4.22 ly), Alpha Centauri system (4.37 ly) Alpha Centauri system (4.37 planetary system ly)
Contents
1 Discovery and exploration 2 Structure and composition 2.1 Distances and scales 3 Formation and evolution 4 Sun 5 Interplanetary medium 6 Inner Solar System 6.1 Inner planets 6.1.1 Mercury 6.1.2 Venus 6.1.3 Earth 6.1.4 Mars 6.2 Asteroid belt 6.2.1 Ceres 6.2.2 Asteroid groups 7 Outer Solar System 7.1 Outer planets 7.1.1 Jupiter 7.1.2 Saturn 7.1.3 Uranus 7.1.4 Neptune 7.2 Centaurs 8 Comets 9 Trans-Neptunian region 9.1 Kuiper belt 9.1.1 Pluto and Charon 9.1.2 Makemake and Haumea 9.2 Scattered disc 9.2.1 Eris 10 Farthest regions 10.1 Heliopause 10.2 Detached objects 10.3 Oort cloud 10.4 Boundaries 11 Galactic context 11.1 Neighbourhood 12 Visual summary 13 See also 14 Notes 15 References 16 External links
Discovery and exploration
Main article: Discovery and exploration of the Solar System
No. of identified
Inclination of invariable plane to the galactic plane Distance to Galactic Center Orbital speed Orbital period
Spectral type Frost line
Distance to heliopause Hill sphere radius
628,057 (as of 2013-12-12) [4]
No. of known minor planets No. of known comets 3,244 (as of 2013-12-12) [4] 19 round satellites
Orbit about the Galactic Center
Star-related properties
For many thousands of years, humanity, with a few notable exceptions, did not recognize the existence of the Solar System. People believed Earth to be stationary at the centre of the universe and categorically different from the divine or ethereal objects that moved through the sky. Although the Greek philosopher Aristarchus of Samos had speculated
on a heliocentric reordering of the cosmos, [11] Nicolaus Copernicus was the first to develop a mathematically predictive heliocentric system. [12] His 17th-century successors, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler and Isaac Newton, developed an understanding of physics that led to the gradual acceptance of the idea that Earth moves around the Sun and that the planets are governed by the same physical laws that governed Earth. Additionally, the invention of the telescope led to the discovery of further planets and moons. In more recent times, improvements in the telescope and the use of unmanned spacecraft have enabled the investigation of geological phenomena, such as mountains and craters, and seasonal meteorological phenomena, such as clouds, dust storms, and ice caps on the other planets.
Structure and composition
The orbits of the bodies in the Solar System to scale (clockwise from top left)
Most of the planets in the Solar System possess secondary systems of their own, being orbited by planetary objects called natural satellites, or moons (two of which are larger than the planet Mercury), and, in the case of the four gas giants, by planetary rings, thin bands of tiny particles that orbit them in unison. Most of the largest natural satellites are in synchronous rotation, with one face permanently turned toward their parent.
The principal component of the Solar System is the Sun, a G2 main-sequence star that contains 99.86% of the system's known mass and dominates it gravitationally. [13] The Sun's four largest orbiting bodies, the gas giants, account for 99% of the remaining mass, with Jupiter and Saturn together comprising more than 90%. [e]
Most large objects in orbit around the Sun lie near the plane of Earth's orbit, known as the ecliptic. The planets are very close to the ecliptic, whereas comets and Kuiper belt objects are frequently at significantly greater angles to it. [17][18] All the planets and most other objects orbit the Sun in the same direction that the Sun is rotating (counter-clockwise, as viewed from a long way above Earth's north pole). [19] There are exceptions, such as Halley's Comet.
The overall structure of the charted regions of the Solar System consists of the Sun, four relatively small inner planets surrounded by a belt of rocky asteroids, and four gas giants surrounded by the Kuiper belt of icy objects. Astronomers sometimes informally divide this structure into separate regions. The inner Solar System includes the four terrestrial planets and the asteroid belt. The outer Solar System is beyond the asteroids, including the four gas giants. [20] Since the discovery of the Kuiper belt, the outermost parts of the Solar System are considered a distinct region consisting of the objects beyond Neptune. [21]
Kepler's laws of planetary motion describe the orbits of objects about the Sun. Following Kepler's laws, each object travels along an ellipse with the Sun at one focus. Objects closer to the Sun (with smaller semi-major axes) travel more quickly because they are more affected by the Sun's gravity. On an elliptical orbit, a body's distance from the Sun varies over the course of its year. A body's closest approach to the Sun is called its
Although the Sun dominates the system by mass, it accounts for only about 2% of the angular momentum [22] due to the differential rotation within the gaseous Sun. [23] The planets, dominated by Jupiter, account for most of the rest of the angular momentum due to the combination of their mass, orbit, and distance from the Sun, with a possibly significant contribution from comets. [22]
Distances and scales
The distance from Earth to the Sun is 1 astronomical unit (150,000,000 km). For comparison, the radius of the Sun is .0047 AU (700,000 km). Thus, the Sun occupies 0.00001% (10 −5 %) of the volume of a sphere with a radius the size of Earth's orbit, whereas Earth's volume is roughly one million (10 6 ) times smaller than that of the Sun. Jupiter, the largest planet, is 5.2 astronomical units (780,000,000 km) from the Sun and has a radius of 71,000 km (0.00047 AU), whereas the most distant planet, Neptune, is 30 AU (4.5×10 9 km) from the Sun.
With a few exceptions, the farther a planet or belt is from the Sun, the larger the distance between its orbit and the orbit of the next nearer object to the Sun. For example, Venus is approximately 0.33 AU farther out from the Sun than Mercury.
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