Sun and Solar System

Our solar system contains only one star, the Sun. It is the centre of our solar system, and its gravity keeps it together. Everything in our solar system spins around it, including planets, asteroids, comets and other pieces of space debris.

Solar System

Our solar system comprises the Sun and everything gravitationally tied to it, including the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune; dwarf planet like Pluto; dozens of moons; and millions of asteroids, meteoroids and comets. Beyond the solar system, many more planetary systems revolving around other stars in the Milky Way have been discovered. 

Overview of the planets of the Solar System

Because their surfaces are rocky, the innermost four planets nearest to the Sun-Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars – are widely termed “terrestrial planets.” Pluto has a rocky, though freezing, crust but has never been classified as one of the four terrestrials.

Because of their huge size compared to the terrestrial planets, the four massive outer worlds – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune – are frequently referred to as the Jovian or “Jupiter-like” planets. According to astronomers, they are also primarily formed of gases like hydrogen, helium, and ammonia rather than stony surfaces, though some or all of them may have hard cores.

Jupiter and Saturn are known as the gas giants, but Uranus and Neptune, which are further distant, are known as the ice giants. This is due to the presence of more water in the air and other ice-forming chemicals, like methane, hydrogen sulphide, and phosphene, on Uranus and Neptune, which solidify into clouds under the planets’ freezing environments.

• Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun and the smallest planet in the solar system, measuring only slightly bigger than Earth’s moon.
• Venus is the hotter planet in the solar system and the second planet from the Sun. Its dense atmosphere is exceedingly hazardous, with clouds of sulfuric acid.
• Our home planet, Earth, is the third-closest planet to the Sun. It is a water world, with water covering two-thirds of the globe.
• Mars is the fourth planet in the solar system. It is a frigid, desert-like planet coated in iron oxide dust, which gives the planet its distinctive red colour.
• Jupiter is the biggest planet in the solar system and the fifth planet from the Sun. The gas giant is much more than two times as huge as all other planets put together.
• Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun, is known for its extensive and unusual ring system. However, Saturn is also not the only planet in the solar system with rings.
• Uranus is the seventh planet in the solar system and is an outlier. It has cloud formations of hydrogen sulphide.
• On average, Neptune is the eighth planet in the solar system and is the coldest planet in the solar system. Neptune’s average temperature just at the top of the clouds is -346 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Pluto, the ninth planet in the solar system, was unlike any planet in our solar system.

Interesting Facts About The Sun

1. The Sun is a celestial body – As a result, it is critical for the survival of life on Earth. The Sun gives us energy, which allows us to live in our world. It determines the seasons, harvests, and even the sleeping habits of all living things on Earth.
2. Because the Sun is the closest star to our planet, we experience it as large and dazzling. 
3. Earth revolves around the Sun. 
4. The Sun dwarfs the Earth in size. 
5. The average surface temperature of the Sun is more than 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5537.778o celsius). In comparison, the average temperature on Earth is 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20o celsius). El Paso’s record high temperature was 114 degrees Fahrenheit (45.56o celsius) in June 1994!
6. The Sun is located 93 million miles distant from Earth.
7. The age of the Sun is about 4.5 billion years.
8. The Sun, like the Earth, has layers. However, unlike the Earth, the Sun is gaseous, with no solid surface.
9. The Sun spins once every 27 days on its axis.
10. The Sun shifts. 

Is It True That There Are Two Solar Systems? 

Astronomers have discovered two alien planets revolving around a pair of stars for the first time: a complete solar system with twin Suns, similar to Luke Skywalker’s mythical homeworld, Tatooine. Most stars, including our Sun, are not singletons but rather team up and orbit one another. Two alien planets with twin Suns, similar to “Star Wars”, have been discovered. Scientists discovered planets in these binary systems, known as circumbinary planets, with two Suns, similar to Tatooine in the “Star Wars” universe. 

Astronomers studied data from NASA’s Kepler satellite telescope, which has found over 2,300 potentially alien worlds since its launch in March 2009. To present, Kepler has discovered four systems with substituent planets. 

The discovery of Kepler-47, the very first region seen with many worlds orbiting a pair of stars, has now been revealed by scientists. The star and its satellites, Kepler-47b and Kepler-47c, are positioned roughly 5,000 light-years distant in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. 

Kepler-47 demonstrates that binary stars, like single stars, can have close-in planetary systems. Because the majority of the stars in the galaxy are in binary or higher-order multiple systems, the fact that planetary systems can exist in these systems is significant.

We would miss almost all of the stars in the cosmos if we only looked for planets orbiting single stars.

Conclusion

We understand the solar system, Sun, planets and other topics in the study material of All About the Sun and Solar System.

The Sun is unimpressive compared to the trillions of many other stars in the cosmos. On the other hand, the Sun is a tremendous centre of attention for Earth and the other planets that circle it. It is responsible for holding the solar system together, providing life-giving light, warmth, and energy to Earth, and generating space weather.