most of the rest is distributed among the planets, with Jupiter containing about 70%. According to the prevailing theory, the solar system originated from the solar nebula.See alsoasteroid; Centaur object; Ceres;comet;Earth; Eris;Jupiter;Kuiper belt;Mars;Mercury;meteorite;Neptune; Oort cloud;Pluto...
solar system. Billions more, however, lie in the area surrounding the solar system, in the far reaches of the swarm of comets known as the Oort cloud or in the disk of debris known as the Kuiper belt. All of these objects travel around the sun at high speeds in paths called orbits. ...
Apart from Mercury (and the Kuiper Belt Object, Pluto), the planets orbit the Sun within a few degrees of the Earth's orbit. The Solar System is essentially flat.Orbital Eccentricity The orbits of all the planets are ellipses. This curve resembles a flattened circle. The eccentricity ...
They inferred its existence by its gravitational effects on other objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region at the fringe of the solar system that is home to icy rocks left over from the birth of the solar system. Also called trans-Neptunian objects, these Kuiper Belt objects have highly elliptic...
According to Jan Oort, comets were formed in the asteroid belt (between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter) and ejected by the giant planets during formation of the solar system. However, the Comets are icy bodies, like a big ball of dirty snow, and the asteroid belt was too hot for ice ...
Solar system, assemblage consisting of the Sun and those bodies orbiting it: 8 planets with about 210 known planetary satellites; many asteroids, some with their own satellites; comets and other icy bodies; and vast reaches of highly tenuous gas and dust
Shadow planet: Strange orbits in the Kuiper belt revive talk of a Planet X in the solar system[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Out beyond Neptune, the solar system resembles the deep ocean: dark,...doi:10.1002/scin.2014.186011021Christopher Crockett
The Solar System is the area of influence around a star such as the Sun. Other Stars, such as Fomalhaut in Piscis Austrinus and Pollux in Gemini will have their own Solar Systems. There is nothing to say that other Solar Systems don't have equivalent asteroids belt or a Kuiper Belt or...
Astronomers have spotted a distant world that orbits far beyond Pluto, in the extreme reaches of the Solar System. The object, known informally as L91, may be in the process of gradually shifting its way inward from the Oort cloud — a reservoir of comets and other icy bodies — into the...
The solar system today has other surprises for us, on worlds we thought we already knew pretty well. Take Mercury, for example. It is the smallest planet, orbits close to the Sun, and has very little in the way of atmosphere. TheMESSENGERspacecraft sent back amazing images of the planet...