Introduction

Our planetary system (The Solar System) consists of our star and everything bound to it by gravity, Including the rock planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and the gas giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Finally, dwarf planets such as Pluto, dozens of moons and millions of asteroids, comets and meteoroids. With all these features on our doorstep, what better place to start our Astronomical journey, than our planetary system.

Birth of the Solar System

Our solar system began as part of a massive nebula cloud of molecular hydrogen and dust around 4.6 billion years ago. In a region of this dark cloud, conditions allowed gravity to condense hydrogen until a substantial mass began to grow ever larger and hotter. Eventually, this mass collapsed in on itself, forming the early stage of a star called a protostar. The embryonic star’s gravitational pull caused a large disc of gas and dust to begin developing around it.

Over millions of years, pressure began to build up inside the protostar as it became hotter and denser until eventually, nuclear fusion began in its core, giving birth to the sun as we know it. During this time, of evolution, the disc of gas and dust which had formed around our star would form the planets, moons and other objects in our solar system.

With all these features on our doorstep, what better place to start our Astronomical journey, than our planetary system. Our Solar system can conveniently, be divided, into two halves, which are named.

The Inner Solar System, is made up of the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and finally the Asteroid belt. To view information on these solar bodies, please. Select here

The outer Solar System makes up the second half of our Solar System . Which consists of Jubiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, The Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. 

Last updated 03/01/2021 Stuart Morris