Portal:Solar System
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The Solar System consists of the Sun and the other celestial objects gravitationally bound to it: the eight planets, their 165 known moons, three currently identified dwarf planets (including Pluto) and their four known moons, and billions of small bodies. This last category includes asteroids, Kuiper belt objects, comets, meteoroids and interplanetary dust. In broad terms, the charted regions of the Solar System consist of the Sun, four terrestrial inner planets, an asteroid belt composed of small rocky bodies, four gas giant outer planets, and a second belt, called the Kuiper belt, composed of icy objects. Beyond the Kuiper belt lies the scattered disc, the heliopause, and ultimately the hypothetical Oort cloud. In order of their distances from the Sun, the planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Six of the eight planets are in turn orbited by natural satellites, usually termed "moons" after Earth's Moon, and each of the outer planets is encircled by planetary rings of dust and other particles. All the planets except Earth are named after gods and goddesses from Greco-Roman mythology. The three dwarf planets are Pluto, the largest known Kuiper belt object; Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt; and Eris, which lies in the scattered disc.
Ceres (IPA: /ˈsɪr.iz/, Latin: Cerēs), also designated 1 Ceres (see minor planet names), is the smallest dwarf planet in the Solar System and the only one located in the main asteroid belt. Its name is derived from the Roman goddess Ceres — the goddess of growing plants, the harvest, and of motherly love. It was discovered on January 1, 1801, by Giuseppe Piazzi. With a diameter of about 950 km, Ceres is by far the largest and most massive body in the asteroid belt, and contains approximately a third of the belt's total mass. Recent observations have revealed that it is spherical, unlike the irregular shapes of smaller bodies with less gravity. (more...)
...that the Oort cloud, a postulated spherical cloud of comets around the Sun, is thought to be the origin of comets in the Solar System?
...that the Sweden Solar System is currently the world's largest scale model of the solar system?
...that 99% of the mass of the Carme group, a group of retrograde irregular satellites of Jupiter, is located in Carme?
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- 13 June 2007: Mars was once covered by oceans, study says
- 23 May 2007: Spirit Rover on Mars finds water made 'silica-rich soil'
- 22 March 2007: Oil exploration in California, USA reveals giant impact crater
- 16 March 2007: Massive ice deposits found on Mars
- 13 March 2007: Saturn's moon Enceladus may host "internal life"
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Solar System: Planets (Definition ˑ Planetary habitability ˑ Terrestrial planets ˑ Gas giants ˑ Rings) ˑ Dwarf planets ˑ Moons ˑ Exploration ˑ Colonization ˑ Discovery timeline
- Sun: Sunspot ˑ Solar wind ˑ Solar flare ˑ Solar eclipse
- Mercury: Geology ˑ Exploration (Mariner 10 ˑ MESSENGER ˑ BepiColombo) ˑ Transit
- Venus: Geology ˑ Atmosphere ˑ Exploration (Venera ˑ Mariner program 2/5/10 ˑ Pioneer ˑ Vega 1/2ˑ Magellan ˑ Venus Express) ˑ Transit
- Earth: History ˑ Geology ˑ Geography ˑ Atmosphere ˑ Rotation
- Moon: Geology ˑ Selenography ˑ Atmosphere ˑ Exploration (Luna ˑ Apollo 8/11) ˑ Orbit ˑ Lunar eclipse
- Mars: Moons (Phobos ˑ Deimos) ˑ Geology ˑ Geography ˑ Atmosphere ˑ Exploration (Mariner ˑ Mars ˑ Viking 1/2 ˑ Pathfinder ˑ MER)
- Ceres: Exploration (Dawn)
- Jupiter: Moons (Io ˑ Europa ˑ Ganymede ˑ Callisto) ˑ Rings ˑ Great Red Spot ˑ Exploration (Pioneer 10/11 ˑ Voyager 1/2 ˑ Ulysses ˑ Cassini ˑ Galileo ˑ New Horizons)
- Saturn: Moons (Mimas ˑ Enceladus ˑ Tethys ˑ Dione ˑ Rhea ˑ Titan ˑ Iapetus) ˑ Rings ˑ Exploration (Pioneer 11 ˑ Voyager 1/2 ˑ Cassini–Huygens)
- Uranus: Moons (Miranda ˑ Ariel ˑ Umbriel ˑ Titania ˑ Oberon) ˑ Rings ˑ Exploration (Voyager 2)
- Neptune: Moons (Triton) ˑ Rings ˑ Exploration (Voyager 2)
- Pluto: Moons (Charon) ˑ Exploration (New Horizons)
- Eris: Dysnomia
- Small bodies: Meteoroids ˑ Asteroids (Asteroid belt) ˑ Centaurs ˑ TNOs (Kuiper belt ˑ Scattered disc ˑ Oort cloud) ˑ Comets (Hale-Bopp ˑ Halley's ˑ Hyakutake ˑ Shoemaker-Levy 9)
- See Also: Featured content ˑ Featured topic ˑ Good articles ˑ List of objects
Bold articles are featured.
Italicized articles are on dwarf planets or major moons.
