Solar System

The solar system is made up of the Sun and everything that revolves or moves around it. This comprises the eight planets and their moons, as well as dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, and other tiny, icy objects. Despite this, the majority of the solar system is in space.

The solar system is merely a small fraction of the Milky Way galaxy, which is a vast structure of stars and other objects. Every 225 million years, the solar system circles the centre of the galaxy. The Milky Way galaxy is simply one of the billions of galaxies that comprise the universe as a whole.

Solar System List

Solar System

The solar system also includes eight planets, which are enormous, almost spherical objects that round the Sun in elliptical trajectories known as orbits. The Earth is also a planet, and it is far enough away from the Sun that it is neither too hot nor too cold for life to survive. Planets originated at least 4.6 billion years ago when dust and gas discs circling the Sun collided and clumped together owing to gravity. Planets are classified into two types:

• Rocky Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are largely formed of solid rock and metal.

• Gas Giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are composed primarily of gases such as hydrogen, helium, and methane. These planets are much larger than the rocky worlds.

The solar system also contains asteroids, which are tiny irregularly shaped objects composed of rock, metal, and carbon that circle the Sun. The asteroid belt contains the majority of these objects, which orbit between Mars and Jupiter.

Solar System All Planets Name

Planets circle the Sun in elliptical orbits, with the Sun slightly off-centre of each ellipse. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are the eight planets.

SUN: The biggest star in our solar system, accounting for 99.8% of its mass. It emits the majority of the heat and light that allow life to exist on Earth and potentially beyond.

Sun

MERCURY: Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system, measuring only slightly bigger than Earth's Moon and travelling around the Sun in only 88 days. The atmosphere of Mercury is extremely thin and mostly consists of oxygen, sodium, hydrogen, helium, and potassium. Because its atmosphere is so thin that it cannot absorb incoming meteors, its surface is dotted with craters, much like our moon's.

Mercury

VENUS: Venus is the nearest planet to Earth and the second closest to the Sun in terms of distance from the Sun. Venus is sometimes known as Earth's twin since it is so similar to Earth in terms of size and density. Venus's atmosphere is thick and poisonous, filled with carbon dioxide. The planet is usually covered in dense clouds of yellowish sulfuric acid. Venus has the highest surface temperature of any planet in the solar system, at roughly 475 degrees Celsius.

Venus

EARTH: Our home planet, Earth, is the third planet from the Sun. It is a water world, with water covering two-thirds of the globe. The atmosphere of Earth is rich in nitrogen and oxygen, and it is the only known globe to support life. It is also called the blue planet and venus’s twin.

Earth

MARS: It is the solar system's fourth planet. It is a frigid, desert-like planet coated in iron oxide dust, which gives it its distinctive red tint. Mars' terrain is rocky, with mountains, valleys, and canyons, as well as storm systems ranging from small tornado-like dust devils to planet-engulfing dust storms.

Significant scientific evidence shows that Mars was once a much warmer, wetter environment, with rivers and maybe even seas. Although Mars' atmosphere is too thin for liquid water to persist on the surface for an extended period, traces of a wetter Mars can still be seen today.

Mars

JUPITER: The biggest planet in the solar system and the fifth planet from the Sun. Its whirling clouds are coloured by various trace gases such as ammonia ice, ammonium hydrosulfide crystals, and water ice and vapour. Jupiter has a powerful magnetic field and 75 moons, including Ganymede, the biggest moon in the solar system.

Jupiter

SATURN: The sixth planet from the Sun is known for its extensive and unusual ring system. Even though Saturn is not the only planet in the solar system to have rings, Scientists are unsure how the rings developed since they are composed of ice and rock. The gaseous planet, which is mainly hydrogen and helium, contains several moons.

Saturn

URANUS: The seventh planet from the Sun and is an outlier. It possesses hydrogen sulphide clouds, the same component that makes rotting eggs smell so bad. It rotates from east to west, similar to Venus. However, unlike Venus or any other planet, its equator is roughly perpendicular to its orbit – it effectively circles on its side.

The impact may have also sent rock and ice into Uranus' orbit. These were eventually transformed into some of the planet's 27 moons. Uranus' blue-green hue is due to methane in its atmosphere. It also contains 13 faint ring sets.

Uranus

NEPTUNE: The eighth planet from the Sun and the coldest planet in the solar system on average. Neptune's average temperature at the top of the clouds is -346 degrees Fahrenheit (-210 degrees Celsius).

Neptune is similar in size to Uranus and is noted for its supersonic strong winds. The planet is more than 30 times farther away from the Sun than Earth is. Neptune is around 17 times the size of Earth and contains a rocky core.

Neptune

How Many Solar Systems are There in the Universe?

One unique planetary system—a star with planets surrounding it—is our solar system. Although there are more than 3,200 other stars in our galaxy with planets around them, our solar system is the only one that is formally referred to as a "solar system." Just how many have we so far located. There are probably a lot more undiscovered planetary systems out there!

There are over 200 billion stars in our galaxy, including our Sun. This provides researchers with a large number of locations to look for exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system. But it's only recently that technology has advanced to the point that astronomers can actually locate such worlds.

Minor Members of the Solar System

Comets, asteroids, objects in the Kuiper Belt and the Oort cloud, minor planetary satellites, Triton, Pluto, Charon, and interplanetary dust are some of the small bodies in the solar system. These objects may reflect on Earth as well as the genesis and evolution of the solar system because some of them are thought to have undergone only minor changes from their status in the early solar nebula from which the planets formed.

Other Members of the Solar System

Our solar system consists of a star, the Sun, eight planets, 146 moons, a slew of comets, asteroids, space rocks, ice, and numerous dwarf planets, including Pluto. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are the eight planets.

Satellites

These are objects that orbit planets and are therefore part of the solar system. The Moon is the Earth's natural satellite. Some satellites, like Ganymede (which orbits Jupiter), are larger than Mercury and have atmospheres.

Asteroids

These are large pieces of rock or metal that circle the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. These moons are thought to have been part of the asteroid belt rather than orbiting Mars. The asteroid belt lies between Mars and Jupiter. It includes rock chunks far smaller than planets. These masses are known as asteroids or minor planets. They are not visible to the human eye from Earth, although many may be viewed using binoculars or small telescopes.

Comets

These are tiny, irregularly shaped ice objects. They often come from the Kuiper Belt, which is located beyond Neptune in the solar system's furthest regions. When these objects approach the Sun, the ice evaporates, leaving behind a lovely tail. Some of these comets arrive regularly, such as Halley's Comet, which comes every 76 years (the next time in 2061!).

Dwarf Planets

Dwarf planets are objects orbiting the Sun that are smaller than planets but larger than asteroids. Ceres, the nearest dwarf planet to us, is located in the asteroid belt. The most well-known is Pluto, which is located beyond Neptune on the inner rim of the Kuiper belt. For the first time in history, a spacecraft dubbed New Horizons visited Pluto and its five satellites in 2014, obtaining high-resolution photographs of the frozen dwarf planet.

Practice Questions

1. Which planet is the smallest in the Solar System?

1. Mercury

2. Jupiter

3. Venus

4. Saturn

Ans: Mercury

2. Venus is regarded as Earth's twin for the following reasons:

1. It is the most visible planet in the night sky.

2. It has the highest temperature in the Solar System.

3. It has the same size and form as the Earth.

4. There are no moons.

Ans: It has the same size and form as the Earth.

3. Which planet is referred to as the "Morning Star" or the "Evening Star"?

1. Neptune

2. Mars

3. Saturn

4. Venus

Ans: Venus

Summary

This article details what the solar system is, the structure of the solar system, and relevant information regarding orbits, planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. The solar system consists of the Sun, its eight main planets, dwarf planets, tiny bodies, and interplanetary dust and gas under the gravitational dominion of the Sun.