https://sandiegosolarinstallers.net/The solar system is a planetary assemblage consisting of the Sun, its eight planets, their moons, asteroids, comets and other objects.
The system began 4.5 billion years ago when a huge cloud of gas and dust collapsed to form the sun and planets in our region of the Milky Way galaxy.
The Sun
The Sun is the largest and brightest star in our solar system. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma that radiates its energy as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radiation.
It was formed 4.6 billion years ago from a molecular cloud that was mainly made of hydrogen and helium. As the gases heated up, they started to fuse together and create helium by a process called nuclear fusion.
The sun is composed of six layers, each of which has a different function. These layers are core, radiative zone, convective zone, photosphere, chromosphere, and corona.
The Planets
The Sun is at the centre of our solar system, but there are also many other bodies orbiting it. These include the planets, moons, asteroids, and comets.
The planets are classified according to their shape, size, and material composition. Four of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) are known as rocky planets; the others are gas giants.
The planets formed when gas and dust from the nebula swirled around the Sun, held in orbit by its gravity. Over time, these materials began to stick together. Eventually, these particles accreted into larger bodies called planetesimals, which are about a mile in diameter.
The Moon
The moon has been a fascinating object for humans to study for centuries. Currently, there are many different theories about how the moon formed.
The majority of scientists believe that the Moon was formed from a giant impact. In this model, a young Earth and a Mars-sized planet collided and melted together to form the Moon as we know it.
This giant-impact theory has a lot of support from recent research. It also suggests that the Moon was a wandering body that was captured by Earth’s gravity and brought into orbit.
The Asteroids
Asteroids are large chunks of rock and debris that formed from a planetesimal swarm in the early formation of our solar system. They are important subjects of astronomical investigation for many reasons, including their potential role as sources of impact hazards.
Although a wide variety of asteroids exist, most are confined to the asteroid belt that spans a vast region of space between Mars and Jupiter. These asteroids are also known as minor planets, and they are often grouped together into families based on their orbital characteristics.
The Comets
Comets are primitive bodies left over from the formation of our solar system. They are icy chunks of dust and gas that were originally in a cloud of material around the Sun, called the Oort cloud.
As a comet gets closer to the Sun, its ices heat up and change to gases. This creates a cloud of ice and gases around the comet’s nucleus, called a coma.
This coma often extends hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Super-fast particles from the Sun (called solar wind) blow this coma away from the comet, sometimes creating a long tail.
The coma and tails of comets can reveal the most important elements in our solar system, including water, carbon dioxide and hydrogen. They also help to answer enduring mysteries about the formation of our Solar System.
