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Solar System

The Solar System is a gravitationally bound system centered around the Sun, which contains eight planets, including Earth, and formed about 4.6 billion years ago. The Sun comprises 99.86% of the system's mass, with the inner planets being Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, while the outer planets include Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Additionally, there are dwarf planets like Ceres and Pluto, as well as numerous smaller bodies such as asteroids and comets.

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2 views1 page

Solar System

The Solar System is a gravitationally bound system centered around the Sun, which contains eight planets, including Earth, and formed about 4.6 billion years ago. The Sun comprises 99.86% of the system's mass, with the inner planets being Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, while the outer planets include Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Additionally, there are dwarf planets like Ceres and Pluto, as well as numerous smaller bodies such as asteroids and comets.

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errahulp70
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© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Solar System is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the masses

that orbit it, most prominently its eight planets, of which Earth is one. The Solar
System is an isolated single-star planetary system (not part of a larger star system)
within the Milky Way Galaxy. The system formed about 4.6 billion years ago when a
dense region of a molecular cloud collapsed, creating the Sun and a protoplanetary
disc from which the orbiting bodies assembled.

The Sun accounts for 99.86% of the Solar System's total mass. Inside the Sun's
core, hydrogen is fused into helium, releasing energy that is emitted through the
Sun's photosphere. This creates the heliosphere and a decreasing
temperature gradient across the Solar System.

The next most massive objects of the system are the eight planets, which by
definition dominate the orbits they occupy. Closest to the Sun in order of increasing
distance are the terrestrial planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. These four
planets are part of the inner Solar System. Earth and Mars are the only planets that
orbit within the Sun's habitable zone, in which sunlight can keep surface water liquid
under atmospheric pressure. Beyond the frost line at about five astronomical
units (AU),[d] are the planets of the outer Solar System: two gas
giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and two ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). Jupiter and
Saturn possess nearly 90% of the non-stellar mass of the Solar System.

Objects of planetary mass that do not dominate their orbit but directly orbit the Sun
are called dwarf planets. The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center
lists Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake, and Haumea as dwarf planets.[12] Four
other Solar System objects are generally identified as
such: Orcus, Quaoar, Gonggong, and Sedna.[13] Less massive than the dwarf planets
are the vast number of small Solar System bodies, such
as asteroids, comets, centaurs, meteoroids, and interplanetary dust clouds.[e] The
dwarf planet Ceres and many of these smaller bodies are located in the asteroid
belt (between Mars's and Jupiter's orbit), while all other dwarf planets are members
of populations of trans-Neptunian objects, which may be found in the Kuiper belt just
outside Neptune or in the further scattered disc.

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