Although our solar system, located in the Milky Way, may be considered microscopic compared to the virtual infinity of space, it is actually a remarkable complex for its size, as the absence of disturbance or interference over the eons has ensured the orbit uniformity. of its components since its creation.
Composed of all the matter gravitationally bound to the sun, it was originally believed, before the advent of the Hubble Telescope and methods of unmanned interstellar space exploration, to consist of nine planets, which have been given intermittent subclassifications, including Jupiter, Saturn , Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars, Pluto and Mercury. However, its “planet” designation stems from the term meaning “wanderer,” which accurately describes its orbital wanderings.
Jupiter, at 86,800 miles in diameter, is the largest, while Pluto, at 2,900 miles in diameter, is the smallest. All nine, however, are reflected by the sun, which is more massive than all of them combined.
Despite their solid appearance, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are made of gases in their frozen states, while the remaining five are made of rock. The Earth, of course, consists of a significant degree of water which, in the polar regions, remains in its solid or frozen state.
Also rocky in composition, but considerably smaller, the satellites orbit the planets themselves, as Titan does with Saturn and Callisto with Jupiter. The original satellite count was 33.
Composed of ice or gas in its frozen state and small amounts of rock, comets travel randomly throughout the solar system at tremendous speeds and can be considered bodies with unpredictable and unchanging trajectories, unless acted on by external forces, such as gravity. .
Other celestial bodies include minor planets, usually made of rock and maintaining fixed orbits, and asteroids, whose name translates to “star-like.” The largest asteroid of this type was discovered on January 1, 1801 by the Italian astronomer Piazzi.
Equally tiny and made of rock, meteoroids travel at high speeds, leaving behind glowing trails of glowing gas, and frequently enter Earth’s atmosphere, sometimes producing large impact craters and burning up anything in their vicinity. Alternatively called meteors, they are sometimes referred to as shooting stars.
Any remnant of significant size that has not been obliterated by its impact or atmospheric entry burn can be considered a meteorite. Micrometeorites, which consist of tiny particles, regularly enter and drift through the atmosphere, undetected.
The rest of the solar system is made up primarily of the interplanetary medium, which in turn is made up of gas, such as hydrogen and helium, and dust, which is made up of microscopic rock particles. This medium, along with that released by exploding stars, accumulates in nebulae or clouds of interstellar gas and dust, the densities of which vary widely.
A dark nebula, for example, is made up of dense particles that obscure light, while a light one is made up mostly of gas, which creates that bright appearance.
Several are well known, even to amateur astronomers and laymen. The Crab Nebula, created on July 4, 1054 after a supernova explosion hurled its matter into space, for example, got its designation from its general shape, while the Horsehead Nebula, which also resembles the animal that gives it its name, presents a central portion of darkening powder.
Other components of the solar system include single, binary, and multiple star systems, which are made up of one to a dozen stars gravitationally bound together, resulting in their respective orbits.
Stars that are too far apart to be classified as multiple systems are considered stellar clusters or groupings and consist of three basic types.
The globular cluster, the first of these, contains several thousand to several hundred thousand stars, ranging from old to red ones composed of hydrogen and helium, but contains little interstellar matter. Roughly spherical in shape, this type of cluster looks almost like pure light.
An open cluster, the second, is more rarefied and therefore does not appear as bright. Also known as a galactic cluster, it is made up of relatively young stars, in the blue or red spectrum, and are rich in heavier elements such as carbon, nitrogen and even iron. Both gas and dust are abundant.
An association, the third type, is a loosely gravitationally bound collection of between a dozen and a hundred widely dispersed components, which have no specific shape or pattern and thus can hardly be considered a group. Continually expanding, its stars are t-tauri, or newly formed, and hot types.
Although there are several diverse bodies and stars that comprise the solar system, the solar system itself is part of a much larger cohesion called a galaxy, which itself is the largest collection of planets, stars, star clusters, nebulae, etc. gas and dust in the universe.
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