Solar System’s Properties

and Current Information

• The planetary system we call home is located in an outer spiral arm of the
Milky Way galaxy.
• Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by
gravity — the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus
and Neptune, dwarf planets such as Pluto, dozens of moons and millions of
asteroids, comets and meteoroids.
• Our solar system is made up of countless smaller bodies such as
dwarf planets, asteroids and comets.
• Our solar system orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy at
about 515,000 mph (828,000 kph).
• Our solar system is a region of space. It has no atmosphere. But it
contains many worlds—including Earth—with many kinds of
atmospheres.
• The planets of our solar system—and even some asteroids—hold
more than 150 moons in their orbits.
• Our solar system is the only one known to support life. So far, we
only know of life on Earth, but we’re looking for more
everywhere we can.
 Need-to-Know
Properties
of Solar System
• Planets orbit roughly in the ecliptic plane.
• Planetary orbits are slightly elliptical, and very nearly circular.
• Planets and Sun revolve and orbit in a west-to-east direction
(counter-clockwise). The planets obliquity (tilt of rotation axes
to their orbits) are small. Uranus and Venus are exceptions.
WHY?
Because Uranus was likely hit by a very large planetoid early in its
history, causing it to rotate "on its side," 90 degrees away from its
orbital motion. Venus rotates backwards compared to the other
planets, also likely due to an early asteroid hit which disturbed its
original rotation.
• The planets differ in composition. Their composition varies
roughly with distance from the Sun: dense, metal-rich planets
are in the inner part and giant, hydrogen rich planets are in the
outer part.
• Meteorites differ in chemical and geologic properties from the planets and
the Moon.
What is meteorite?
A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid,
or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the
atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon.
• The rotation rates of the planets and asteroids are similar (5 to
15 hours).
• Planet-satellite systems resemble the solar system.
What is planet-satellite?
The satellite here is what we call natural satellite - is any celestial body in space that orbits
around a larger body. Moons are called natural satellites because they orbit planets.
The Solar System's planets and officially recognized dwarf planets are known to be
orbited by 194 natural satellites, or moons. 19 moons in the Solar System are large
enough to be gravitationally rounded, and thus would be considered planets or dwarf
planets if they were in direct orbit around the Sun.
Satellites that are made by people and launched into orbit using rockets are called
artificial satellites. There are thousands of artificial satellites orbiting the Earth.
• The Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt of comets.

• Planets contain ~99% of the solar system's AM but Sun

contains >99% of solar system's mass.
 • Kuiper Belt • Oort Cloud
• a spherical shell of cometary
• a band of small celestial bodies believed to surround
bodies beyond the orbit of the sun far beyond the orbits
Neptune from which many of the outermost planets and
short-period comets are from which some are
believed to originate dislodged when perturbed to
fall toward the sun