The Solar System is a vast collection of celestial objects that orbit the Sun in a perpetual dance. It contains a star, eight planets, and a host of other objects such as asteroids, comets, dwarf planets, and other icy bodies.
All the planets and other rocky objects in the Solar System orbit the Sun in elliptical orbits, in the same direction as the Sun rotates. Outside this region is the Kuiper belt, which contains thousands of rocky objects.
The Birth of the Solar System
Before the Solar System was shaped into a neat set of planets, every scrap of matter in it was part of a gigantic nebula. It began to collapse in on itself after becoming gravitationally unstable – a phenomenon possibly caused by the nearby eruption of a supernova, an exploding star that sent shock waves rippling through space.
Gravity pulled dust and gas to the centre of the nebula, making it a snowball effect that increased its density. As more and more matter was tugged inward, the core became hotter, causing atoms to separate and jostle each other, generating heat. At this temperature, protons at the center of the atoms started to fuse, turning them into a lot of energy.
Over the past half-century, astronomers have pieced together a coherent story about how the solar system evolved and formed. This is based on the data they have collected from Earth-launched space probes and landers, meteorites plucked from the surface and moon rocks returned by astronauts.
The planets themselves, the small rocky worlds that orbit the Sun and the large gas giants, were born out of a swirling disk of gases and ices. In the outer part of the disk, protoplanets grew faster and were more likely to attract lighter elements like hydrogen and helium.
Once the earliest of these planets reached the inner edge of the disk, they started to collide with each other and other objects. Some of these objects shattered and escaped, leaving them as tiny debris called asteroids. These were scattered throughout the solar system, with many of them orbiting between Mars and Jupiter in what is today the asteroid belt.
These asteroids, some of them incredibly large, have been studied over the years to understand the processes that took place when our solar system was formed. Some scientists even believe that they may have acted as seeds for the planets themselves!
When our planets formed, they were molten and had iron-rich cores. Heavier elements sank to the centers, where they dissolved to form the outer rocky layers of our planets and their smaller moons.
Meteorites
Meteorites are rocky fragments that fall from space and land on Earth. They are usually made up of tiny chunks of other rocky bodies, such as comets or asteroids.
The main source of meteorites are shattered pieces of asteroids that crash into each other in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, in the outer part of our solar system. This can sometimes throw meteoroid debris out of their regular orbit and into our atmosphere.
Asteroids are mainly composed of rocky materials that have a rough surface and often have holes in them. This makes them easy to break up as they float in space.
Most of these shattered asteroids end up in the asteroid belt and are pulled out by the gravity of Jupiter. This causes them to move towards the inner part of our solar system, where they can collide with other planets or moons.
They can also be thrown out of their normal orbits by the force of the sun’s gravity. Some meteoroid streams, which are associated with comets, will be carried out of their orbit by the forces of the sun.
When they enter Earth’s atmosphere, meteorites burn up because of a combination of friction and air pressure. These forces cause the meteorites to heat up and release energy in the form of light.
Most of the energy released by a meteorite is in the form of kinetic energy. This means that the object is moving faster than the speed of light, which is about 39 600 km/h (2259 200 mph).
These high speeds make it very difficult for the meteoroid to get through the Earth’s atmosphere without getting caught by the atmospheric pressure or the heat from the sun. This can happen at any time during the meteor’s flight through the atmosphere, but it happens more frequently during daytime.
The most common type of meteorite is a stony meteorite, which contains grains of tiny round particles called chondrules. Chondrules are believed to be a remnant of material from the solar nebula disk, which was formed before our planets came into existence.
Comets
Comets are small chunks of ice, dust and rocks that come from deep space. They are frozen remnants from the early solar system and can contain water and other ingredients that were needed for life.
When a comet approaches the sun, it heats up very quickly and a process called sublimation causes its solid ice to turn into gas. The gas contains water vapor, carbon monoxide and other trace substances and is eventually swept into the comet’s distinctive tail, according to NASA.
A comet can last hundreds of thousands or even millions of years in orbit around the Sun. Some long-period comets take a very long time to complete one orbit, while others get captured into regular orbits that bring them back to the Sun again and again.
Most comets, though, are small and have a hard time being seen from Earth. These comets usually live in the Kuiper Belt or in a place called the Oort Cloud, both of which are very far from the Sun.
Some comets, however, are so tiny that they can be detected with very small telescopes. Despite their very small size, these comets are important to scientists as they have given them valuable information on the formation of our solar system and how it has evolved over time.
Observations from Earth-based telescopes and space probes have helped astronomers learn more about these mysterious objects. Those observations have also helped us learn more about the different types of comets and how they move through space.
There are many different types of comets, but they all have one thing in common: a tail that points away from the Sun. This tail is made of both dust and gas and is often difficult to see with the naked eye, but it can be photographed.
When a comet is near the Sun, the gravity of the planets and stars it passes affects its movement. This effect is referred to as the comet’s axis of symmetry and it helps keep the comet moving in the right direction. The comet also moves faster near the Sun as more of its ice evaporates, making the tail grow longer.
The Sun
The Sun is one of the main stars in our solar system. It’s also the source of light, heat, and electricity on Earth. The Sun is located 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth in the Milky Way galaxy. It is the brightest star in our sky, and it has a lifespan of 10 billion years.
The Sun’s energy comes from nuclear fusion, where hydrogen is fused into helium. This happens in the core of the Sun, where temperatures reach 27 million degF (15 million degC).
It’s also made up of a lot of other materials like oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, silicon, magnesium, neon, iron, sulphur, and more. Some of these are in the form of gases, while others are in the form of plasma – which is a state of matter where most of the particles are ionized and have electrons.
Some of these atoms are so hot that they can escape the pressure at the centre of the Sun and blow out into space. This is called’solar wind’, and it can travel through our solar system at speeds of up to 450 km per second.
These winds are caused by collisions between atoms and particles in the solar atmosphere. They are a powerful force in the solar system, and they can also create’sunspots’ on the surface of the Sun.
Another thing that makes the sun move is its magnetic field. These fields loop around the sun and connect at its two poles, causing disruptions that lead to sunspots, eruptions known as solar flares, and coronal mass ejections.
The magnetic field changes every 11 years, triggering an activity cycle. During this time, the frequency of sunspots increases and there are more eruptions called solar flares.
The magnetic field is also responsible for producing solar prominences – a feature that extends from the Sun’s surface to its core. These ‘prominences’ can be huge, and last for months to years.
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