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Parts-per-million chart of the relative mass distribution of the Solar System, each cubelet denoting 2 × 10 24 kg. This article includes a list of the most massive known objects of the Solar System and partial lists of smaller objects by observed mean radius. These lists can be sorted according to an object's radius and mass and, for the most ...
Of those objects that orbit the Sun directly, the largest eight are the planets (including Earth), with the remainder being significantly smaller objects, such as dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies. Of the objects that orbit the Sun indirectly, the moons, two are larger than the smallest planet, Mercury.
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 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 Solar System Portal. The Sun and planets of the Solar System (distances not to scale) The Solar System is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it. 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.
There are eight planets within the Solar System; planets outside of the solar system are also known as exoplanets . As of 25 July 2024, there are 5,741 confirmed exoplanets in 4,285 planetary systems, with 960 systems having more than one planet. [1] Most of these were discovered by the Kepler space telescope.
Most such planets, being either super-Earths or gas giants, are more massive than Earth, because massive planets are easier to detect. [8] On November 4, 2013, astronomers reported, based on Kepler data, that there could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars and red dwarfs in the Milky Way.
Mercury, the smallest and innermost planet, has no moons, or at least none that can be detected to a diameter of 1.6 km (1.0 mi). [2] For a very short time in 1974, Mercury was thought to have a moon. Venus also has no moons, [3] though reports of a moon around Venus have circulated since the 17th century.