Portal:Solar System
The Solar System Portal
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The Solar System is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it. It was formed about 4.6 billion years ago when a dense region of a molecular cloud collapsed, forming the Sun and a protoplanetary disc. The Sun is a typical star that maintains a balanced equilibrium by the fusion of hydrogen into helium at its core, releasing this energy from its outer photosphere. Astronomers classify it as a G-type main-sequence star.
The largest objects that orbit the Sun are the eight planets. In order from the Sun, they are four terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars); two gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn); and two ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). All terrestrial planets have solid surfaces. Inversely, all giant planets do not have a definite surface, as they are mainly composed of gases and liquids. Over 99.86% of the Solar System's mass is in the Sun and nearly 90% of the remaining mass is in Jupiter and Saturn.
There is a strong consensus among astronomers that the Solar System has at least nine dwarf planets: Ceres, Orcus, Pluto, Haumea, Quaoar, Makemake, Gonggong, Eris, and Sedna. There are a vast number of small Solar System bodies, such as asteroids, comets, centaurs, meteoroids, and interplanetary dust clouds. Some of these bodies are in the asteroid belt (between Mars's and Jupiter's orbit) and the Kuiper belt (just outside Neptune's orbit). Six planets, seven dwarf planets, and other bodies have orbiting natural satellites, which are commonly called 'moons'.
The Solar System is constantly flooded by the Sun's charged particles, the solar wind, forming the heliosphere. Around 75–90 astronomical units from the Sun, the solar wind is halted, resulting in the heliopause. This is the boundary of the Solar System to interstellar space. The outermost region of the Solar System is the theorized Oort cloud, the source for long-period comets, extending to a radius of 2,000–200,000 AU. The closest star to the Solar System, Proxima Centauri, is 4.25 light-years (269,000 AU) away. Both stars belong to the Milky Way galaxy. (Full article...)
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The following are images from various Solar System-related articles on Wikipedia.
Did you know –
- ...that Yogi Rock (pictured) is a rock found on Mars by the Mars Pathfinder mission that looks surprisingly like Yogi Bear's head?
- ...that the Kuiper crater in the Kuiper quadrangle, named after Dutch American astronomer Gerard Kuiper, has the highest albedo recorded on Mercury?
- ...that 6Q0B44E, a recently discovered satellite of Earth, is thought to be a large piece of space debris?
- ...that 17th century philosopher Cesare Cremonini refused to look at the Moon's mountains through Galileo's telescope, because Aristotle had proved the Moon was a perfect sphere?
- ...that scarps, ridges, and troughs, such as the 650 km long and 2 km high Discovery Rupes cutting through the Rameau crater, are common features in the Discovery quadrangle on the planet Mercury?
- ...that the Kármán line dividing the Earth's atmosphere and outer space is defined by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale as 100 km above mean sea level?
- ...that Mars' south polar ice cap may be melting due to global warming?
- ...that Lowell Observatory staff resisted building the telescope used to discover the dwarf planet Pluto until trustee Roger Putnam ordered them to do so?
Categories
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Solar System | ||
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Celestial mechanics | Comets | ...in fiction |
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Minor planets | Moons | Planetary missions |
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Planets... | Sun | Surface feature nomenclature... |
![Category puzzle](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/C_Puzzle.png/42px-C_Puzzle.png)
In the news
- April 7: NASA's helicopter Ingenuity survives its first night at Mars
- December 25: 'Earth-based life can survive in hydrogen-rich atmospheres': MIT professor Dr Seager tells Wikinews about her research on organisms thriving in oxygen-less environment
- July 7: Astronomer Anthony Boccaletti discusses observation of birth of potential exoplanet with Wikinews
- May 31: SpaceX successfully launches its first crewed spaceflight
- May 22: Astronomer tells Wikinews about discovery of closest black hole known so far
- October 12: Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov dies at age 85
- October 10: Swedish academy announces 2019 Nobel Prize winners in physics
- September 14: Astronomers find water vapour in atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b
- March 5: SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docks with International Space Station
- January 9: Simple animals could live in Martian brines: Wikinews interviews planetary scientist Vlada Stamenković
- November 29: NASA's InSight Lander makes it to Mars
- October 12: Manned Soyuz space mission aborts during launch
Major topics
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Solar_System_Template_2.png)
Solar System: Planets (Definition · Planetary habitability · Terrestrial planets · Gas giants · Rings) · Dwarf planets (Plutoid) · Colonization · Discovery timelineˑ Exploration · Moons · Planetariums
- Sun: Sunspot · Solar wind · Solar flare · Solar eclipse
- Mercury: Geology · Exploration (Mariner 10 · MESSENGER · BepiColombo) · Transit
- Venus: Geology · Atmosphere · Exploration (Venera · Mariner program 2/5/10 · Pioneer · Vega 1/2ˑ Magellan · Venus Express) · Transit
- Earth: History · Geology · Geography · Atmosphere · Rotation
- Moon: Geology · Selenography · Atmosphere · Exploration (Luna · Apollo 8/11) · Orbit · Lunar eclipse
- Mars: Moons (Phobos · Deimos) · Geology · Geography · Atmosphere · Exploration (Mariner · Mars · Viking 1/2 · Pathfinder · MER)
- Ceres: Exploration (Dawn)
- Jupiter: Moons (Amalthea, Io · Europa · Ganymede · Callisto) · Rings · Atmosphere · Magnetosphere · Exploration (Pioneer 10/11 · Voyager 1/2 · Ulysses · Cassini · Galileo · New Horizons)
- Saturn: Moons (Mimas · Enceladus · Tethys · Dione · Rhea · Titan · Iapetus) · Rings · Exploration (Pioneer 11 · Voyager 1/2 · Cassini–Huygens)
- Uranus: Moons (Miranda · Ariel · Umbriel · Titania · Oberon) · Rings · Exploration (Voyager 2)
- Neptune: Moons (Triton) · Rings · Exploration (Voyager 2)
- Planets beyond Neptune
- Pluto: Moons (Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, Styx) · Geology · Atmosphere · Exploration (New Horizons)
- Haumea: Moons (Hi'iaka, Namaka) · Ring
- Quaoar: Weywot · Rings
- Makemake: S/2015 (136472) 1
- Gonggong: Xiangliu
- Eris: Dysnomia
- Sedna
- Small bodies: Meteoroids · Asteroids (Asteroid belt) · Centaurs · TNOs (Kuiper belt · Scattered disc · Oort cloud) · Comets (Hale–Bopp · Halley's · Hyakutake · Shoemaker–Levy 9)
- Formation and evolution of the Solar System: History of Solar System formation and evolution hypotheses · Nebular hypothesis
- See also: Featured content · Featured topic · Good articles · List of objects
Bold articles are featured.
Italicized articles are on dwarf planets or major moons.
Things you can do
![The planet Saturn, see here eclipsing the sun](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Saturn_eclipse.jpg/150px-Saturn_eclipse.jpg)
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