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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 planetsMercury, 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...)

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Galileo image of 243 Ida. The tiny dot to the right is its moon, Dactyl.
Galileo image of 243 Ida. The tiny dot to the right is its moon, Dactyl.
243 Ida is an asteroid in the Koronis family of the main belt. It was discovered on 29 September 1884 by Johann Palisa and named after a nymph from Greek mythology. Later telescopic observations categorized Ida as an S-type asteroid, the most numerous type in the inner asteroid belt. On 28 August 1993, Ida was visited by the spacecraft Galileo, bound for Jupiter. It was the second asteroid to be visited by a spacecraft and the first found to possess a satellite. Like all main-belt asteroids, Ida's orbit lies between the planets Mars and Jupiter. Its orbital period is 4.84 years, and its rotation period is 4.63 hours. Ida has an average diameter of 31.4 km (19.5 mi). It is irregularly shaped and elongated, and apparently composed of two large objects connected together in a shape reminiscent of a croissant. Its surface is one of the most heavily cratered in the Solar System, featuring a wide variety of crater sizes and ages. Ida's moon, Dactyl, was discovered by mission member Ann Harch in images returned from Galileo. It was named after creatures which inhabited Mount Ida in Greek mythology. Data returned from the flyby pointed to S-type asteroids as the source for the ordinary chondrite meteorites, the most common type found on the Earth's surface. (Full article...)

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Panther Mountain from Highmount

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Solar System
Celestial mechanics Comets ...in fiction
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Solar System news

26 July 2026 – International Space Station expeditions
Expedition 74, the joint NASARoscosmosESA expedition aboard the International Space Station, ends after the Soyuz MS-28 undocks and lands on Earth in Kazakhstan. (CNN)
16 July 2026 –
Astronomers report the first observationally confirmed atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet within its star's habitable zone, after detecting helium escaping from the upper atmosphere of LHS 1140 b, a super-Earth approximately 49 light-years from Earth. (Space.com)
15 July 2026 – Discoveries of exoplanets
Astronomers directly image the exoplanet Beta Pictoris d next to its star, located 63 light-years away, using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. It is also reported to be fainter than its sibling Beta Pictoris b. The discovery is published in the The Astrophysical Journal. (ABC News) (Space.com)
16 June 2026 – Discoveries of exoplanets
The NASA's James Webb Space Telescope discovers that the Hot Jupiter exoplanet HD 80606 b is being roasted by its home star. The research findings were presented at the 248th American Astronomical Society in Pasedena, California, U.S. (Space.com)
9 June 2026 – Artemis program
NASA announces that its astronauts Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas, and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano will crew the Artemis III mission in late 2027. The mission's goal is to evaluate rendezvous and docking operations with SpaceX's Starship HLS and Blue Origin's Blue Moon spacecraft. (NBC News)

Major topics

The SunMercuryVenusThe MoonEarthMarsPhobos and DeimosCeresThe main asteroid beltJupiterMoons of JupiterSaturnMoons of SaturnUranusMoons of UranusNeptuneMoons of NeptunePlutoMoons of PlutoHaumeaMoons of HaumeaMakemakeThe Kuiper BeltErisDysnomiaThe Scattered DiscThe Hills CloudThe Oort Cloud

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 · CassiniHuygens)
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
The planet Saturn, see here eclipsing the sun

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