Portal:Solar System

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The Solar System Portal

The Sun and planets of the Solar System (distances not to scale)

The Solar System is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the masses that orbit it, most prominently its eight planets, of which Earth is one. The Solar System is an isolated single-star planetary system (not part of a larger star system) within the Milky Way Galaxy. The system formed about 4.6 billion years ago when a dense region of a molecular cloud collapsed, creating the Sun and a protoplanetary disc from which the orbiting bodies assembled.

The Sun accounts for 99.86% of the Solar System's total mass. Inside the Sun's core, hydrogen is fused into helium, releasing energy that is emitted through the Sun's photosphere. This creates the heliosphere and a decreasing temperature gradient across the Solar System.

The next most 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 terrestrial planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. These four planets are part of the inner Solar System. Earth and Mars are the only planets that orbit within the Sun's habitable zone, in which sunlight can keep surface water liquid under atmospheric pressure. Beyond the frost line at about five astronomical units (AU), are the planets of the outer Solar System: two gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and two ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). Jupiter and Saturn possess nearly 90% of the non-stellar mass of the Solar System.

Objects of planetary mass that do not dominate their orbit but directly orbit the Sun are called dwarf planets. The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center lists Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake, and Haumea as dwarf planets. Four other Solar System objects are generally identified as such: Orcus, Quaoar, Gonggong, and Sedna. Less massive than the dwarf planets are the vast number of small Solar System bodies, such as asteroids, comets, centaurs, meteoroids, and interplanetary dust clouds. The dwarf planet Ceres and many of these smaller bodies are located in the asteroid belt (between Mars's and Jupiter's orbit), while all other dwarf planets are members of populations of trans-Neptunian objects, which may be found in the Kuiper belt just outside Neptune or in the further scattered disc. (Full article...)

Selected article –

Ceres as seen by the Dawn spacecraft, 19 February 2015.

Ceres is a dwarf planet in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It was the first object identified in the asteroid belt, discovered on 1 January 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi at Palermo Astronomical Observatory in Sicily, and announced as a new planet. Ceres was later classified as an asteroid, and then more recently as the only confirmed dwarf planet within the asteroid belt, and the largest without a moon. It is also the only recognized dwarf planet in the solar system whose orbit lies within that of Neptune. In the minor planet numbering system, its designation is 1 Ceres or (1) Ceres.

Ceres's diameter is about a quarter that of the Moon. Its small size means that even at its brightest it is too dim to be seen by the naked eye, except under extremely dark skies. Its apparent magnitude ranges from 6.7 to 9.3, peaking at opposition (when it is closest to Earth) once every 15- to 16-month synodic period. As a result, its surface features are barely visible even with the most powerful telescopes, and little was known about it until the robotic NASA spacecraft Dawn approached Ceres for its orbital mission in 2015. (Full article...)

More selected articles

Selected picture

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  Solar eclipse of 11 August 1999

  Solar eclipse of 1999 August 11

  Credit: Luc Viatour

  The solar eclipse of 1999 August 11, as seen from France. This was the most viewed total eclipse in human history, although some areas offered impaired visibility due to adverse weather conditions. The path of the Moon's shadow began in the Atlantic Ocean, before traversing Cornwall, northern France, southern Germany, Austria, Hungary and northern Serbia. Its maximum was in Romania, and it continued across the Black Sea, Turkey, Iran, southern Pakistan and India.
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  Planet Mars

  Photo credit: NASA

  Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, is named after the Roman god of war because of its blood red color. Mars has two small, oddly-shaped moons, Phobos and Deimos, named after the sons of the Greek god Ares. At some point in the future Phobos will be broken up by gravitational forces.
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  Transit of Venus, 2012

  Photo: NASA/SDO

  A picture of the 2012 transit of Venus by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, from 36,000 km (22,000 mi) above the Earth. A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth. It is one of the rarest predictable astronomical phenomena and happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit before 2012 was in 2004, and the next pair of transits will occur in 2117 and 2125.
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  Jupiter

  Jupiter

  Credit: Cassini probe

  Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and by far the largest within the Solar System. It is 318 times more massive than Earth, with a diameter 11 times that of Earth, and with a volume 1300 times that of Earth. Its best known feature is the Great Red Spot, a storm larger than Earth, which was first observed by Galileo four centuries ago. This picture, taken by the Cassini orbiter was one of 26 thousand images taken of Jupiter during the course of its flyby and is the most detailed global color portrait of the planet ever produced.
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  Tvashtar Paterae

  Photo credit: New Horizons probe

  An animation of an eruption by the Tvashtar Paterae volcanic region on the innermost of Jupiter's Galilean moons, Io. The ejecta plume is 330 km (205 mi) high, though only its uppermost half is visible in this image, as its source lies over the moon's limb on its far side. This animation consists of a sequence of five images taken by NASA's New Horizons probe on March 1, 2007, over the course of eight minutes from 23:50 UTC.
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  Geology of Venus

  Image credit: NASA

  A radar image of the surface of Venus, centered at 180 degrees east longitude. This composite image was created from mapping by the Magellan probe, supplemented by data gathered by the Pioneer orbiter, with simulated hues based on color images recorded by Venera 13 and 14. No probe has been able to survive more than a few hours on Venus's surface, which is completely obscured by clouds, because the atmospheric pressure is some 90 times that of the Earth's, and its surface temperature is around 450 °C (842 °F).
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  Comet Hale-Bopp 29-03-1997

  Comet Hale–Bopp

  Credit: Philipp Salzgeber

  Comet Hale–Bopp sails across the sky in the vicinity of Pazin in Istria, Croatia. To the lower right of the comet the Andromeda Galaxy is also faintly visible. The comet was visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months, twice as long as the Great Comet of 1811. At perihelion, it shone brighter than any star in the sky except Sirius, and its two tails stretched 30-40 degrees across the sky. The passage of Hale-Bopp was notable also for inciting a degree of panic about comets not seen for decades. Rumours that the comet was being followed by an alien spacecraft inspired a mass suicide among followers of the Heaven's Gate cult.
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  Earthrise, as seen by Apollo 8

  Apollo 8

  Credit: William Anders

  Earthrise, the first occasion in which humans saw the Earth seemingly rising above the surface of the Moon, taken during the Apollo 8 mission on December 24, 1968. This view was seen by the crew at the beginning of its fourth orbit around the Moon, although the first photograph taken was in black-and-white. Note that the Earth is in shadow here. A photo of a fully lit Earth would not be taken until the Apollo 17 mission.
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  Climate of Mars

  Photograph credit: NASA / JPL–Caltech / University of Arizona

  Although Mars is smaller than the Earth and 50 percent farther from the Sun, its climate has important similarities with the Earth, such as the presence of polar ice caps, seasonal changes and observable weather patterns. This image shows layered deposits in Planum Boreum, in the north polar region of Mars, which formed from a 3-kilometre-thick (2 mi) stack of dusty water-ice layers about 1,000 km (600 mi) across. The layers record information about the climate of the planet stretching back several million years. Erosion has created scarps and troughs that expose the layering. The tan-colored layers are the dusty water ice of the polar layered deposits, however a section of bluish layers is visible below them. These bluish layers contain sand-sized rock fragments that likely formed a large polar dunefield before the overlying dusty ice was deposited. This photograph, depicting an area approximately 1.3 km (0.8 mi) across, was captured by the HiRISE camera on board NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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  Iapetus

  Photo credit: Cassini orbiter

  A close-up of 10 km (6.2 mi) high mountains within the equatorial ridge on Saturn's moon Iapetus, photographed by the Cassini orbiter. Above the middle of the image can be seen a place where an impact has exposed the bright ice beneath the dark overlying material. The image was taken on September 10, 2007, with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 3,870 km (2,400 mi) from Iapetus.
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  Solar flare

  Photo: Goddard Space Flight Center

  A solar flare, a sudden flash of brightness observed over the Sun's surface or the solar limb which is interpreted as a large energy release, recorded on August 31, 2012. Such flares are often, but not always, followed by a colossal coronal mass ejection; in this instance, the ejection traveled at over 900 miles (1,400 km) per second.
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  Lakes of methane on Titan

  Image credit: Cassini orbiter

  This false-color radar image taken by the Cassini orbiter provides convincing evidence for large bodies of liquid methane on Titan. Images taken during a fly-by of the moon on July 22, 2006 show more than 75 large bodies of liquid ranging in diameter from three to 70km (1.9 to 43.6 mi) in the moon's northern hemisphere. Intensity in this colorized image is proportional to how much radar brightness is returned. The lakes, darker than the surrounding terrain, are emphasized here by tinting regions of low backscatter in blue. Radar-brighter regions are shown in tan. Smallest details in this image are about 500 m (1,640 ft) across. On January 3, 2007, NASA announced that scientists have "definitive evidence of lakes filled with methane on Saturn's moon Titan."
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  C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy)

  Photograph: NASA/Dan Burbank

  Comet Lovejoy is a long-period comet and Kreutz Sungrazer which was discovered in 2011. Named after its discoverer, Terry Lovejoy, the comet was nicknamed "The Great Christmas Comet" owing to it becoming visible near Christmas.
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  The Blue Marble

  Photo credit: The Apollo 17 crew

  The Blue Marble is a famous photograph of Earth. NASA officially credits the image to the entire Apollo 17 crew — Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Jack Schmitt — all of whom took photographic images during the mission. Apollo 17 passed over Africa during daylight hours and Antarctica is also illuminated. The photograph was taken approximately five hours after the spacecraft's launch, while en route to the Moon. Apollo 17, notably, was the last manned lunar mission; no humans since have been at a range where taking a "whole-Earth" photograph such as "The Blue Marble" would be possible.
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  Iapetus

  Photo credit: Cassini orbiter

  False-color mosaic shows the entire hemisphere of Iapetus (1,468 km or 912 mi across) visible from the Cassini orbiter on the outbound leg of its encounter with the two-toned moon of Saturn in September 2007. The central longitude of the trailing hemisphere is 24 degrees to the left of the image's center. It is hypothesized that the moon's two-toned nature is due to the sublimation of various ices evaporated from the warmer parts of the surface.
• 

  

  Five global views of Venus by Magellan.

  Magellan (spacecraft)

  Credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  These images are composites of the complete radar image collection obtained by the Magellan mission. The Magellan spacecraft was launched aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis in May 1989 and began mapping the surface of Venus in September 1990. The spacecraft continued to orbit Venus for four years, returning high-resolution images, altimetry, thermal emissions and gravity maps of 98 percent of the surface. Magellan spacecraft operations ended on October 12, 1994, when the radio contact was lost with the spacecraft during its controlled descent into the deeper portions of the Venusian atmosphere.
• 
  101955 Bennu

  Photograph credit: NASA / OSIRIS-REx

  101955 Bennu is a carbonaceous asteroid discovered by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research project in 1999. Bennu has a roughly spheroidal shape, an effective diameter of about 484 m (1,588 ft), and a rough, boulder-strewn surface. It is a potentially hazardous object, with a cumulative 1-in-2,700 chance of impacting Earth between 2175 and 2199. It is named after the Bennu, an ancient Egyptian bird deity associated with the Sun, creation, and rebirth. This mosaic image of Bennu consists of twelve PolyCam images taken by NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a range of 24 km (15 mi). The primary goal of the mission is to collect a sample from the asteroid's surface, which is scheduled to take place on October 20, 2020, and return the sample to Earth for analysis.
• 
  Pale Blue Dot

  Photo credit: NASA/JPL

  Pale Blue Dot is the name given to this 1990 photo of Earth taken from Voyager 1 when its vantage point reached the edge of the Solar System, a distance of roughly 3.7 billion miles (6 billion kilometres). Earth can be seen as a blueish-white speck approximately halfway down the brown band to the right. The light band over Earth is an artifact of sunlight scattering in the camera's lens, resulting from the small angle between Earth and the Sun. Carl Sagan came up with the idea of turning the spacecraft around to take a composite image of the Solar System. Six years later, he reflected, "All of human history has happened on that tiny pixel, which is our only home."
• 

  

  Sunspot TRACE image

  Sunspot

  Credit: NASA/TRACE

  A TRACE image of sunspots on the surface, or photosphere, of the Sun from September 2002, is taken in the far ultraviolet on a relatively quiet day for solar activity. However, the image still shows a large sunspot group visible as a bright area near the horizon. Although sunspots are relatively cool regions on the surface of the Sun, the bright glowing gas flowing around the sunspots have a temperature of over one million °C (1.8 million °F). The high temperatures are thought to be related to the rapidly changing magnetic field loops that channel solar plasma.
• 

  

  Mars

  Mars

  Credit: NASA

  Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, is named after the Roman god of war because of its blood red color. Mars has two small, oddly-shaped moons, Phobos and Deimos, named after the sons of the Greek god Ares. At some point in the future Phobos will be broken up by gravitational forces. The atmosphere on Mars is 95% carbon dioxide. In 2003 methane was also discovered in the atmosphere. Since methane is an unstable gas, this indicates that there must be (or have been within the last few hundred years) a source of the gas on the planet.
• 
  The Day the Earth Smiled

  Photograph: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

  The Day the Earth Smiled refers to the date July 19, 2013, on which the Cassini spacecraft turned to image Saturn, its entire ring system, and the Earth from a position where Saturn eclipsed the Sun. Cassini imaging team leader and planetary scientist Carolyn Porco called for all the world's people to reflect on humanity's place in the cosmos, to marvel at life on Earth, and to look up and smile in celebration. The final mosaic, shown here, was released four months later and includes planets Earth, Mars, and Venus, and a host of Saturnian moons.
• 
  Neptune

  Photograph credit: NASA / JPL

  Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun in the Solar System. In the Solar System, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter, the third-most-massive planet and the densest giant planet. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth, slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus. Neptune is denser and physically smaller than Uranus because its greater mass causes more gravitational compression of its atmosphere. Neptune orbits the Sun once every 164.8 years at an average distance of 30.1 au (4.5 billion km; 2.8 billion mi). It is named after the Roman god of the sea and has the astronomical symbol ♆, a stylised version of the god Neptune's trident.
  
  This picture of Neptune was taken by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989, at a range of 4.4 million miles (7.1 million kilometres) from the planet, approximately four days before closest approach. The photograph shows the Great Dark Spot, a storm about the size of Earth, in the centre, while the fast-moving bright feature nicknamed the "Scooter" and the Small Dark Spot can be seen on the western limb. These clouds were seen to persist for as long as the spacecraft's cameras could resolve them.
• 
  Full moon

  Photo credit: Luc Viatour

  Full moon is a lunar phase that occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun, and when the three celestial bodies are aligned as closely as possible to a straight line. At this time, as seen by viewers on Earth, the hemisphere of the Moon that is facing the Earth (the near side) is fully illuminated by sunlight and appears round. Only during a full moon is the opposite hemisphere of the Moon, which is not visible from Earth (the far side), completely unilluminated.

General images

The following are images from various Solar System-related articles on Wikipedia.

• 
  Plot of objects around the Kuiper belt and other asteroid populations. J, S, U and N denotes Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. (from Solar System)
• 
  Meteor Crater in Arizona. Created 50,000 years ago by an impactor about 50 metres (160 ft) across, it shows that the accretion of the Solar System is not over. (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  The Solar System (left) within the interstellar medium, with the different regions and their distances on a logarithmic scale (from Solar System)
• 
  The four terrestrial planets Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars (from Solar System)
• 
  The current orbits of Sedna, 2012 VP113, Leleākūhonua (pink), and other very distant objects (red, brown and cyan) along with the predicted orbit of the hypothetical Planet Nine (dark blue) (from Solar System)
• 
  The outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, compared to the inner planets Earth, Venus, Mars, and Mercury at the bottom right (from Solar System)
• 
  Diagram of the Sun's magnetosphere and heliosheath (from Solar System)
• 
  Overview of the inner Solar System up to Jupiter's orbit (from Solar System)
• 
  Diagram of the early Solar System's protoplanetary disk, out of which Earth and other Solar System bodies formed (from Solar System)
• 
  Relative size of the Sun as it is now (inset) compared to its estimated future size as a red giant (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  The four largest asteroids: Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, Hygiea. Only Ceres and Vesta have been visited by a spacecraft and thus have a detailed picture. (from Solar System)
• 
  The sparse plasma (blue) and dust (white) in the tail of comet Hale–Bopp are being shaped by pressure from solar radiation and the solar wind, respectively.
• 
  Hubble image of protoplanetary discs in the Orion Nebula, a stellar nursery approximately 25 ly across and estimated to be similar to the primordial nebula from which the Sun formed (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  The Sun in true color as viewed through a solar filter (from Solar System)
• 
  The current Sun compared to its peak size in the red-giant phase (from Solar System)
• 
  Pierre-Simon Laplace, one of the originators of the nebular hypothesis (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  Diagram of the Local Interstellar Cloud, the G-Cloud and surrounding stars. As of 2022, the exact position of the Solar System within the interstellar clouds remains an unresolved question in astronomy. (from Solar System)
• 
  Animations of the Solar System's outer planets orbiting. This animation is 100 times faster than the inner planet animation. (from Solar System)
• 
  Relative orbital distances in the Solar System visualized as a condensed rectangle (from Solar System)
• 
  Illustration of a protoplanetary disk that would have surrounded the Sun. (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  Neptune and its moon Triton, taken by Voyager 2. Triton's orbit will eventually take it within Neptune's Roche limit, tearing it apart and possibly forming a new ring system. (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  The orbital eccentricities and inclinations of the scattered disc population compared to the classical and resonant Kuiper belt objects (from Solar System)
• 
  A color enhanced photograph from the Moon of a range of components of the Solar System. The three dots at the lower left are from left to right the planets Saturn, Mars, and Mercury, and in the middle of the picture rises the Sun's corona over the dark limb of the Moon, which is from the right lit by earthshine. (from Solar System)
• 
  Artist's conception of a protoplanetary disk (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  Comparison of the distances between planets, with the white bar showing orbital variations. The size of the planets is not to scale. (from Solar System)
• 
  Diagram of the Milky Way, with galactic features and the relative position of the Solar System labeled. (from Solar System)
• 
  Simulation showing outer planets and Kuiper belt:
  a) Before Jupiter/Saturn 2:1 resonance
  b) Scattering of Kuiper belt objects into the Solar System after the orbital shift of Neptune
  c) After ejection of Kuiper belt bodies by Jupiter
  

    Orbit of Jupiter

    Orbit of Saturn

    Orbit of Uranus

    Orbit of Neptune

  (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  Orbit classification of Kuiper belt objects. Some clusters that are subject to orbital resonance are marked. (from Solar System)
• 
  The planets, zodiacal light and meteor shower (top left of image) (from Solar System)
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  Animations of the Solar System's inner planets orbiting. Each frame represents 2 days of motion. (from Solar System)
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  Location of the Solar System within the Milky Way (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
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  The Ring Nebula, a planetary nebula similar to what the Sun will become (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  Solar system diagram by Emanuel Bowen in 1747, when neither Uranus, Neptune, nor the asteroid belts had yet been discovered. Orbits of planets are to scale, but the orbits of moons and the sizes of bodies are not. (from Solar System)
• 
  The motion of 'lights' moving across the sky is the basis of the classical definition of planets: wandering stars. (from Solar System)
• 
  All active Solar System space probes in 2026 (and a list of upcoming ones) (from Solar System)
• 
  An artist's impression of the Oort cloud, a region still well within the sphere of influence of the Solar System, including a depiction of the much further inside Kuiper belt (inset); the sizes of objects are over-scaled for visibility. (from Solar System)
• 
  Artist's conception of the giant impact thought to have formed the Moon (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)

Did you know –

• ...that the passing of the Great Comet of 1577 (pictured) caused almost century-long debate, during which Galileo argued that comets were merely optical illusions?

• ...that systematic mapping of the Michelangelo quadrangle on Mercury has revealed the presence of four nearly obliterated multi-ring impact basins, possibly the oldest features in the mapped areas of the planet?

• ...that there have been several proposals for space advertising projects, including a giant, 1km² billboard visible from Earth?

• ...that some astrologers claim Earth has a second moon they call Lilith?

• ...that the south pole of the planet Mercury is located in the Bach quadrangle?

• ...that the Sweden Solar System is currently the world's largest scale model of the Solar System?

• ...that the dominant feature in the Shakespeare quadrangle is the 1300 km wide Caloris Planitia, the largest and best preserved impact basin on Mercury observed by the spacecraft Mariner 10?

• ...that the nearly circular shape of Lukanga Swamp, a wetland covering 2,600 km² in Central Province, Zambia, has led to speculation that it may be a crater formed by the impact of a meteorite?

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Solar System news

1 October 2026 – SpaceX Crew-13

The SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station launches, carrying two NASA astronauts, one Roscosmos cosmonaut, and one Canadian Space Agency astronaut, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, United States. (AFP via France 24)

16 September 2026 – Discoveries of exoplanets

Astronomers confirm the existence of Elias 2-24 b, the youngest known exoplanet, which is less than one million years old and located approximately 450 light-years from Earth. The discovery was observed through the W.M. Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, U.S., using a coronagraph. (Space.com)

16 September 2026 –

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter discovers a recently formed crater on the moon larger than the Colosseum in Rome, Italy. (Phys.org)

3 September 2026 –

The BepiColombo begins its final mission to Mercury, eight years after its launch by the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. (Space.com)

NASA discovers a 10–sided pattern on the south pole of Saturn using its Hubble Space Telescope from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, United States. (The Peninsula) (ScienceDaily)

Major topics

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

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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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