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TheSolar System is thegravitationally bound system of theSun and the masses thatorbit it, most prominently its eightplanets, of whichEarth is one. The systemformed about 4.6 billion years ago when a dense region of amolecular cloud collapsed, creating the Sun and aprotoplanetary disc from which the orbiting bodies assembled. Inside theSun's core hydrogenis fused into helium for billions of years, releasing energy which is over even longer periods of time emitted through the Sun's outer layer, thephotosphere. This creates theheliosphere and a decreasing temperaturegradient across the Solar System.
The mass of the Solar System is by 99.86% almost completely made up of the Sun's mass. The nextmost 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 fourterrestrial planets –Mercury,Venus, Earth andMars. These are the planets of theinner Solar System. Earth and Mars are the only planets in the Solar System which orbit within the Sun'shabitable zone, in which the sunlight can make surface water under atmospheric pressure liquid. Beyond thefrost line at about fiveastronomical units (AU), are twogas giants –Jupiter andSaturn – and twoice giants –Uranus andNeptune. These are the planets of theouter Solar System. Jupiter and Saturn possess nearly 90% of the non-stellar mass of the Solar System.
Additionally to the planets there are in the Solar System otherplanetary-mass objects, but which do not dominate their orbits, such asdwarf planets andplanetary-mass moons. TheInternational Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center listsCeres,Pluto,Eris,Makemake, andHaumea as dwarf planets. Four otherSolar System objects are generally identified as such:Orcus,Quaoar,Gonggong, andSedna.Natural satellites, which are commonly called 'moons', can be found throughout the Solar System and in sizes from planetary-mass moons to much less massivemoonlets at their smallest. The largest two moons (Ganymede of Jupiter andTitan of Saturn) are larger than the smallest planet (Mercury), while the seven most massive, which includes Earth'sMoon, are more massive and larger than any of the dwarf planets.Less massive than these planetary-mass objects are the vast number ofsmall Solar System bodies, such asasteroids,comets,centaurs,meteoroids, andinterplanetary dust clouds. All dwarf planets and many of the smaller bodies are within theasteroid belt (between Mars's and Jupiter's orbit) and theKuiper belt (just outside Neptune's orbit).
The Solar System is within the heliosphere constantly flooded by the chargedplasma particles of thesolar wind, which forms with the interplanetary dust, gas andcosmic rays between the bodies of the Solar System aninterplanetary medium. At around70–90 AU from the Sun, the solar wind is halted by theinterstellar medium, resulting in theheliopause and the border of the interplanetary medium tointerstellar space. Further out somewhere beyond2,000 AU from the Sun extends the outermost region of the Solar System, the theorizedOort cloud, the source forlong-period comets, stretching to the edge of the Solar System, the edge of itsHill sphere, at 178,000–227,000 AU (2.81–3.59 ly), where its gravitational potential becomes equal to the galactic potential. The Solar System currently moves through a cloud of interstellar medium called theLocal Cloud. Theclosest star to the Solar System,Proxima Centauri, is 269,000 AU (4.25 ly) away. Both are within theLocal Bubble, a relatively small 1,000 light-years (ly) wide region of theMilky Way. (Full article...)
The orbits of Venus and Earth make the two planets approach each other insynodic periods of 1.6 years. In the course of this, Venus comes closer to Earth than any other planet, in contrast toMercury which stays closer over the course of an orbit to Earth than any other planet, due to its orbit being closer to the Sun. Ininterplanetary spaceflight from Earth, Venus is frequently used as a waypoint forgravity assists, offering a faster and more economical route. Venus has nomoons and a very slowretrograde rotation about its axis, a result of competing forces of solar tidal locking and differential heating of Venus's massive atmosphere. As a result, a Venusian day is 116.75 Earth days long, about half a Venusiansolar year, which is 224.7 Earth days long.(Full article...)


| Solar System | ||
|---|---|---|
| Celestial mechanics | Comets | ...in fiction |
| Minor planets | Moons | Planetary missions |
| Planets... | Sun | Surface feature nomenclature... |


Solar System:Planets (Definition · Planetary habitability · Terrestrial planets · Gas giants · Rings) · Dwarf planets (Plutoid) · Colonization · Discovery timelineˑExploration · Moons · Planetariums
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Italicized articles are on dwarf planets or major moons.

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