Portal:Solar System

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The Solar System Portal

Major features of the Solar System (not to scale)

The Solar System consists of the Sun and the other celestial objects gravitationally bound to it: the eight planets, their 168 known moons, five currently identified dwarf planets and their seven known moons, and billions of small bodies. This last category includes asteroids, Kuiper belt objects, comets, meteoroids and interplanetary dust. In broad terms, the charted regions of the Solar System consist of the Sun, four terrestrial inner planets, an asteroid belt composed of small rocky bodies, four gas giant outer planets, and a second belt, called the Kuiper belt, composed of icy objects. Beyond the Kuiper belt lies the scattered disc, the heliopause, and ultimately the hypothetical Oort cloud. In order of their distances from the Sun, the planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Six of the eight planets are in turn orbited by natural satellites, usually termed "moons" after Earth's Moon, and each of the outer planets is encircled by planetary rings of dust and other particles. All the planets except Earth are named after gods and goddesses from Greco-Roman mythology. The five dwarf planets are Pluto, Makemake, and Haumea, the three largest known Kuiper belt objects; Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt; and Eris, the largest known object in the scattered disc.

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The Earth seen from Apollo 17.
Earth (pronounced /ɜrθ/) is the third planet from the Sun and is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System, in both diameter and mass. Home to the human species, it is also referred to as "the Earth", "Planet Earth", "Gaia", "Terra", "the World", and "the Blue Planet".

The Earth is the first planet known to have liquid water on the surface and is the only place in the universe known to harbor life. Earth has a magnetic field that, together with a primarily nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, protects the surface from radiation that is harmful to life. The atmosphere also serves as a shield that causes smaller meteors to burn up before they strike the surface.

The Earth formed around 4.57 billion years ago and its only known natural satellite, the Moon, began orbiting it around 4.53 billion years ago. At present, the Earth orbits the Sun once for every roughly 366.26 times it rotates about its axis (which is equal to 365.26 solar days). The Earth's axis of rotation is tilted 23.5° (away from the perpendicular to its orbital plane), producing seasonal variations on the planet's surface.

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Io moon
Credit: NASA

Io moon taken by NASA's Galileo probe. This image shows two volcanic eruptions. The one on the horizon is 140km high, the other is 75km high. Io is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. It is named after Io, one of Zeus's many love interests in Greek mythology.

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The Sun Mercury Venus The Moon Earth Mars Phobos and Deimos Ceres The main asteroid belt Jupiter Moons of Jupiter Saturn Moons of Saturn Uranus Moons of Uranus Neptune Moons of Neptune Pluto Moons of Pluto Haumea Moons of Haumea Makemake The Kuiper Belt Eris Dysnomia The Scattered Disc The Hills Cloud The Oort CloudSolar System Template Final.png

Solar System: Planets (Definition ˑ Planetary habitability ˑ Terrestrial planets ˑ Gas giants ˑ Rings) ˑ Dwarf planets (Plutoid) ˑ Moons ˑ Exploration ˑ Colonization ˑ Discovery timeline

Sun: Sunspot ˑ Solar wind ˑ Solar flare ˑ Solar eclipse
Mercury: Geology ˑ Exploration (Mariner 10 ˑ MESSENGER ˑ BepiColombo) ˑ Transit
Venus: Geology ˑ Atmosphere ˑ Exploration (Venera ˑ Mariner program 2/5/10 ˑ Pioneer ˑ Vega 1/2ˑ Magellan ˑ Venus Express) ˑ Transit
Earth: History ˑ Geology ˑ Geography ˑ Atmosphere ˑ Rotation
Moon: Geology ˑ Selenography ˑ Atmosphere ˑ Exploration (Luna ˑ Apollo 8/11) ˑ Orbit ˑ Lunar eclipse
Mars: Moons (Phobos ˑ Deimos) ˑ Geology ˑ Geography ˑ Atmosphere ˑ Exploration (Mariner ˑ Mars ˑ Viking 1/2 ˑ Pathfinder ˑ MER)
Ceres: Exploration (Dawn)
Jupiter: Moons (Amalthea, Io ˑ Europa ˑ Ganymede ˑ Callisto) ˑ Rings ˑ Atmosphere ˑ Magnetosphere ˑ Exploration (Pioneer 10/11 ˑ Voyager 1/2 ˑ Ulysses ˑ Cassini ˑ Galileo ˑ New Horizons)
Saturn: Moons (Mimas ˑ Enceladus ˑ Tethys ˑ Dione ˑ Rhea ˑ Titan ˑ Iapetus) ˑ Rings ˑ Exploration (Pioneer 11 ˑ Voyager 1/2 ˑ CassiniHuygens)
Uranus: Moons (Miranda ˑ Ariel ˑ Umbriel ˑ Titania ˑ Oberon) ˑ Rings ˑ Exploration (Voyager 2)
Neptune: Moons (Triton) ˑ Rings ˑ Exploration (Voyager 2)
Planets beyond Neptune
Pluto: Moons (Charon, Nix, Hydra) ˑ Exploration (New Horizons)
Haumea: Moons (Hi'iaka, Namaka)
Makemake
Eris: Dysnomia
Small bodies: Meteoroids ˑ Asteroids (Asteroid belt) ˑ Centaurs ˑ TNOs (Kuiper belt ˑ Scattered disc ˑ Oort cloud) ˑ Comets (Hale-Bopp ˑ Halley's ˑ Hyakutake ˑ Shoemaker-Levy 9)
Formation and evolution of the Solar System: History of Solar System formation and evolution hypotheses ˑ Nebular hypothesis
See Also: Featured content ˑ Featured topic ˑ Good articles ˑ List of objects

Bold articles are featured.
Italicized articles are on dwarf planets or major moons.

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The planet Saturn, see here eclipsing the sun

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