The Solar System: A blog post on the Solar System and how it works.

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The Solar System: A blog post on the Solar System and how it works.

The Solar System is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it, either directly or indirectly. It consists of the eight planets, the dwarf planets, the small Solar System bodies, and sometimes the larger asteroids. The Solar System is the third-largest system in the Solar System, relative to the size of the Sun, and the largest known to consist of more than one star. The Solar System formed 4.57 billion years ago from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud. Most of the system's mass lies in the Sun and the outermost planets.

Definition of the solar system

. The solar system is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it, either directly or indirectly. Of the objects that orbit the Sun directly, the largest are the eight planets, with the remainder being smaller objects, the dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies. The Sun is one of the eight planets, and the others are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. The dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies are the Asteroid Belt, the Kuiper belt, and the Oort cloud.

Orbit of the solar system

The solar system is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it, either directly or indirectly. Of the objects that orbit the Sun directly, the largest are the eight planets, with the remainder being smaller objects, the dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies. The four smaller planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, are termed the terrestrial planets and are composed mainly of rock and metal. Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants that also have a large amount of orbiting material. Uranus and Neptune are ice giants that are less massive than Jupiter and Saturn, but have large amounts of liquid hydrogen and helium. The solar system is located within the Milky Way, which is a barred spiral galaxy with the Sun located roughly in its center. It is estimated to contain about 200 billion stars, including its own galactic nucleus, the Milky Way. It may be only one of hundreds of billions of other galaxies in the universe.

How do planets orbit the sun?

The planets orbit the sun in the same direction, but they do not orbit at the same speed. The fastest planet, Mercury, completes an orbit in 58 days. The slowest, Pluto, takes 248 years.

How do planets move?

Planets are said to be able to revolution in a single day, but to do so, they would need to spin so quickly that they would fly off their orbit. In reality, the fastest planet, Mercury, rotates once in about 58 days. However, that is not the fastest any planet can rotate. Jupiter rotates once in about 10 hours, yet it does not fly out of orbit. Instead, Jupiter has a very strong magnetic field that holds it in place. It is possible for even the slowest of planets to be stable because of their magnetic fields. It is important to remember that the planets do not rotate in a direct circle around the Sun, but instead follow elliptical orbits.

Mercury and Venus

Mercury and Venus are the closest planets to the Sun. Mercury is the first planet and is also the smallest planet in the Solar System. The orbit of Venus and Mercury are both inside the orbit of Earth.

Mars

The planet Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the second smallest planet in the Solar System, after Mercury. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the second smallest planet in the Solar System, after Mercury. Mars is the only planet in the Solar System with a solid surface, and the only planet in the Solar System with a surface that has been observed up close, to date. Mars is named after the Roman god of war, Mars.

Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System. It is the fifth-largest in the Solar System, the third-most massive and the fourth-most dense. Jupiter has a radius of about 12,4.5×12,4.5×12,4.5 kilometres (7.8×7.8×7.8 miles). It is the only planet in the Solar System with a solid surface of hydrogen and helium, rock, and other substances.

Saturn

Saturn is a gas giant and has a radius that is almost ten times that of the Earth. Saturn's mass is about 95 times that of Earth, making it the second-largest planet in the Solar System. Saturn orbits the Sun at a distance of about 5.2 billion kilometers (3.2 million miles) and takes about 29.5 Earth years to make a single orbit.

Uranus

Uranus has a mass that is roughly 14 percent greater than Earth's. It has a mean radius of 84,580 km (52,742 miles), more than three times Earth's diameter. It is the seventh densest planet in the Solar System, and the second most distant after Neptune. It has an axial tilt of 97°. Uranus has a complex and unusual obliquity of 97°20'16.2" that results in a magnetic field 110 times as strong as Earth's, which is tilted 42° from the planet's rotational axis. This field is not visible from Earth because it is offset from the rotation axis and the rotation axis is in the northern hemisphere. Uranus was named from the Greek god of the sky Uranus, which means "Heavenly Sky".

Neptune

Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun. Neptune's average distance from the Sun is 2.823 astronomical units (AU) (about 30.1 billion km or 18.5 billion mi). Neptune was discovered by the astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle in 1846. It is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third-largest by mass. Neptune is thought to have a composition similar to that of Uranus and Jupiter. The planet's dark, methane-rich atmosphere is matched only by Saturn's moon Titan and the Moon.

Pluto

Pluto is the planet that was discovered in 1930. Pluto was considered a planet because of its mass and gravity. Pluto is the largest member of the Kuiper belt and the known starting point of the Solar System. It has a diameter of about 1,430 km. It is the only dwarf planet in the Solar System. Its surface is composed mostly of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen and helium, in addition to trace amounts of methane. Pluto has two moons, Charon and Nix. Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930.

The Kuiper Belt

The Kuiper Belt is a zone of icy objects that is thought to occupy the same orbit as the outer planets. The Kuiper Belt was hypothesized in the early 20th century but is only now being confirmed by modern observations. The Kuiper Belt is estimated to be at least 50 to 100 times more massive than the planet Neptune. Pluto is currently the largest object in the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is the source of the Trans-Neptunian Objects.

Conclusion: If you want to learn more about the solar system, this blog post is the place to get started.