The solar system is a gravitational system associated with the Sun and the objects that orbit it, either directly or indirectly. The largest of these bodies are the eight planets and the rest are smaller objects.
The solar system is the group consisting of the Sun and all the bodies around it, including Earth and other planets, and the solar system includes other smaller bodies, namely small planets, asteroids, meteorites and comets, as well as a thin cloud of gas and dust called the ” “Inter planetary mediation” also orbits the Sun but indirectly, and there are planetary after shocks called natural satellites, which number more than 150 known moons in the solar system, mostly or biting invasive giant planets and two of these satellites larger than Mercury.
The solar system is only a small part of a huge system of stars and other objects called the Milky Way, where the solar system orbits the center of the galaxy once every 225 million years, and the Milky Way is just one of the billions of galaxies that form the universe in turn.
Solar System Elements
Sun
The Sun is a huge star located at the center of the solar system and is the largest object in the solar system with a diameter of 1 392 000 kilometres. The Sun contains more than 99% of all materials in the solar system, a very hot ball of hydrogen and helium gases at a temperature of more than 28.080,000 degrees Fahrenheit (15,600,000 degrees Celsius) at its core, hydrogen changes to helium constantly resulting in huge amounts of radiation or energy as Earth’s organisms rely on this energy for light and heat.
Solar Wind
Gases surrounding the Sun release a stream of small particles called solar winds as they flow out ward through the solar system with its thickness and solar winds causing twilight or the display of colored light in the night sky in parts of the Earth. This twilight in the northern or southern hemisphere is called the Northern Lights. Aurora aurora is the formation of natural lights in the sky that appear visibly in high latitudes (around the Arctic and the Antarctic) and appear as moving bright lights such as curtains or winding rays that cover the sky.
Planets
The largest objects in the solar system are the planets after the Sun and the order of these planets from the closest to the Sun are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, most orbiting the Sun in circle-shaped paths and most planets have at least one moon but vary greatly in size, temperature and composition.
Scientists named Pluto Planet IX but in 2006 scientists decided that many objects in the solar system, including Pluto, should be called dwarf planets.
Asteroids
Millions of small pieces of minerals and rocks called asteroids orbit the Sun and most asteroids are found in a ring between Mars and Jupiter where they are believed to be debris or parts of material left by collisions between other objects in the solar system. The largest asteroids are hundreds of miles in diameter but most are much smaller, Small asteroids regularly fall to Earth or burn into the sky as glowing meteorites.
Comets
Comets are small pieces of earthy waste and ice, billions of which orbit the Sun on very long tracks in oval forms, and when they are closer to the Sun the reflection of the Sun’s beam causes them to glow. Most comets are too small or far away to be seen from Earth and comets are found in two parts of the outer solar system: the Kuiper Belt and the Urr Cloud.
Many comets consist of asteroid collisions orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter path ways in an area called the Asteroid Belt. When asteroids collide with each other, they produce crumbling debris, meteorites. Asteroid impact force can throw meteor debris — and sometimes asteroids themselves — beyond their normal orbit. This can put meteorites on a collision course with a planet or moon.
External Areas
The Kuiper Belt is located behind Neptune and is a flat ring of millions of small ice objects. These bodies orbit the Sun 30 to 50 times too large from the Sun’s distance from Earth.
The outer extremities of the solar system have an ORT cloud, a huge cloud of incalculable small ice objects, and an ORT cloud surrounds the rest of the solar system.
How does the solar system form?
The solar system formed about 4.7 billion years ago, it may have started as a large cloud of gas and dust. Scientists believe that a force called gravity pulled parts of the cloud together in blocks. Together, large blocks were squeezed so tightly that they became too hot and eventually this mass became the sun. The Sun’s strong appeal eventually drove the planets into their orbits and over time some of the remaining masses turned into asteroids, comets and other small, frozen particles.
Other planetary systems
The solar system is also known as the planetary system. Since the 1990s scientists have dis covered many planetary systems outside our solar system. In these systems, one or more planets orbit a star, just as the eight planets in our solar system orbit the Sun, and these planets are called the ” “Exoplanets” however, finding other planetary systems is not easy because exoplanets appear darker than stars orbiting them, and because space probes travel away from Earth more planets are likely to be detected outside the solar system.
Space Weather
Space weather is the changing environmental conditions in near-Earth space, as magnetic fields, radiation and particles released by the Sun can interact with the Earth’s upper atmosphere and surrounding magnetic field and result in many effects and interactions.
Space weather results from solar activity, which constitutes constantly changing conditions in space. Magnetic energy moves the Sun’s activity, which is associated with sun spots occurring on the surface of the Sun or the light envelope. Sun spots are dark and cold patches on the sun’s surface that can move, change and disappear over time.
Solar spots appear due to solar activity that occurs in areas with intense energy and magnetic activity. With data available for nearly 250 years of solar activity, sunspots have become the first means of measuring and monitoring solar activity and what affects space weather. The ultimate objective of solar activity surveillance programmes is its predictability and impact on the Earth.
Solar system exploration
Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 was the first man-made object to orbit the Earth in 1957 and since then scientists have sent numerous spacecraft to explore different parts of the solar system. Spacecraft carried astronauts from orbit around the Earth to the Moon and to man-made space stations. Other spacecraft called probes carried cameras and scientific equipment, but did not have astronauts. In addition, space probes flew across all planets in the solar system and captured many images and collected much valuable information about the solar system.
The length of each solar system planet’s orbit
Each of the planets in the solar system has its own unique orbit, all lasting for varying periods of time. The length of the planet’s orbits is as follows according to the up ward order and these orbits have been measured by Earth’s days and years:
- Mercury: Of all the planets in our solar system Mercury has the shortest orbit where it orbits the Sun in just 88 Earth days.
- Venus: Venus orbits for 224 days.
- Earth: As is known, the Earth’s circulation around the Sun lasts for 365 days.
- Mars: Mars completes its course around the sun in 687 days.
- Jupiter: Jupiter’s orbit is a big leap from the previous orbit, as it lasts around the Sun for about 12 years.
- Saturn: Another leap in time where Saturn’s spin lasts for about 29 years.
- Uranus: Uranus’ turnover lasts for a full 84 years.
- Neptune: Neptune spins for about 164 years.
- Pluto: Pluto is a dwarf planet but for the purpose of comparison it can be included in the list of planets, it is very far from the sun and its orbit is huge and lasts around the sun for about 248 years.