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Relative masses of the Solar planets. Jupiter at 71% of the total and Saturn at 21% dominate the system. Relative masses of the solid bodies of the Solar System. Earth at 48% and Venus at 39% dominate. Bodies less massive than Pluto are not visible at this scale. Relative masses of the rounded moons of the Solar System.
Mercury's orbit is inclined by 7 degrees to the plane of Earth's orbit (the ecliptic), the largest of all eight known solar planets. [111] As a result, transits of Mercury across the face of the Sun can only occur when the planet is crossing the plane of the ecliptic at the time it lies between Earth and the Sun, which is in May or November ...
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve orbital dominance like the eight classical planets of the Solar System. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto, which for decades was regarded as a planet before the "dwarf" concept ...
720,000 km/h (450,000 mi/h) [ 10] Orbital period. ~230 million years [ 10] The Solar System[ d] is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it. [ 11] It was formed about 4.6 billion years ago when a dense region of a molecular cloud collapsed, forming the Sun and a protoplanetary disc.
The number of dwarf planets in the Solar System is unknown. Estimates have run as high as 200 in the Kuiper belt [1] and over 10,000 in the region beyond. [2] However, consideration of the surprisingly low densities of many large trans-Neptunian objects, as well as spectroscopic analysis of their surfaces, suggests that the number of dwarf planets may be much lower, perhaps only nine among ...
The following is a list of Solar System objects by orbit, ordered by increasing distance from the Sun. Most named objects in this list have a diameter of 500 km or more. The Sun, a spectral class G2V main-sequence star. The inner Solar System and the terrestrial planets. Mercury. Mercury-crossing minor planets. Venus. Venus-crossing minor planets.
The largest known trans-Neptunian objects are Pluto and Eris, followed by Haumea and Makemake, all of them being officially recognized as dwarf planets by the IAU. There are also several dwarf planet candidates such as Gonggong, Quaoar, Sedna, and Orcus. Most TNOs have low albedos typically around 0.09.
Impact event. Damage to trees caused by the Tunguska event. The object, just 50–80 metres (150–240 feet) across, exploded 6–10 km (4–6 miles) above the surface, shattering windows hundreds of km away. An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. [1]