Changes: Sun

Revision as of 14:14, 14 August 2010

The 8 planets of the Solar system and Earths moon (not to scale)

The Solar System (also known as the Sol System) is the star system of Earth. It is found in the Milky Way. It contains 8 planets, an asteroid field, numerous dwarf planets, and an Oort cloud consisting mainly of Comets. All of the objects in the sol system orbit around the sun.

Planets

Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune

Dwarf Planets

Ceres (Not to be confused with Ceres Space Colony.)
Pluto
Haumea
Makemake
Eris

Candidates

Orcus
Ixion
Huya
Varuna
Quaoar
Sedna

Other notable bodies

The asteroid belt
The oort cloud
The moon of Earth

@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 *The oort cloud
 *The moon of [[Earth]]
-==Minor Planets and Objects==
-*Pallas - Second largest and discovered asteroid, this is Minor Planet #2, besides Ceres. Largest minor planet unable to be considered a Dwarf Planet, due to its orbit path. Minor Planet #2, was considered a Planet until #5, Astraea, was discovered.
-*Juno - Third discovered asteroid, Minor Planet #3 was considered a planet until Minor Planet #5, Astraea, was discovered. Extremely reflective, Juno is among the S-class of asteroids.
-*Vesta - set to be explored next year by the Dawn Vessel, which will move on to Ceres at ~2015. 2nd most massive asteroid, although equal in size with Pallas. Minor planet 4, along with Ceres, Pallas, and Juno, were named planets until Minor Planet 5, Astraea, was discovered. Was actually visable from San Fransico in 2007, briefly before disappearing. Be looking towards Capricornus, the constellation, on August 5th, 2011.
-*Astraea - Fifth discovered asteroid, Minor Planet #5 was the reason Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta were overruled as planets, seeing as there were so many small objects appearring.
-*Hebe - Sixth discovered asteroid, discovered by same man as Astraea. Minor Planet #6 may be the source of over 40% of meteorites that strike the Earth.
-*Iris - Seventh discovered asteroid, Iris is Minor Planet #7. Known to compete against Ceres, the brightest asteroid, in brightness.
-*Flora - Eighth discovered asteroid, Flora is Minor Planet #8. Seventh brightest asteroid.
-*Metis - Ninth discovered asteroid, Metis is Minor Planet#9. Known for being extremely dense, Metis contains just under .5% of the mass in the asteroid belt. It is theorized that it is the remnaint of the core of an asteroid involved in an ancient collision.
-*Hygiea - Tenth discovered asteroid, Minor Planet #10 was the largest asteroid discovered since Vesta. Candidate for Dwarf Planet status, Hygiea may soon be more recognized on solar system maps.
-*Parthenope - 11th discovered asteroid, Minor Planet #11. Not much is known about Parthenope as of yet.
-*Victoria - 12th asteroid, Minor Planet #12. Again, not much is known about Victoria, other than it is suspected to be a binary asteroid.
-*2004 VD17 - Very Near-Earth asteroid that topped 2006 apocalyptic threats, discovered Nov. 7th, 2004 by the LINEAR asteroid survey. 1 in 1600 chance of striking earth in 2102, and 1 in 500,000 chance of hitting in 2104.
-*2004 XP14 - Apollo Asteroid (type of near-earth variation) that barely missed the Earth by a 1.1-Earth's-diameter distance on July 3rd, 2006. Like 2004 VD17, it was discovered by the LINEAR asteroid survey on December 10th, 2004. The asteroid remains hazardous.
-*2006 HZ51 - Amon Asteroid (another type of near-earth asteroid) is the largest hazardous asteroid discovered by NASA. One of its 165 possible impact dates was June 21, 2008, on which it had a one in 600 million chance of hitting us.
-*Achilles - The first Trojan Asteroid ever discovered, in 1906.
-*Adonis - Second Apollo Asteroid ever discovered, came within 2 million km of the Earth in 1937.
-*Angelina - Second largest known E-class asteroid (type that dominates the Hungaria Group of the asteroid belt), besides Nyna, this E-class has the farthest out orbit from the asteroid belt known in its family.
-*Antiope - First binary asteroid ever discovered, this asteroid orbits itself in two parts, separated by about 170 km. It is in the Themis Family, discovered in 1866.
-*Apollo - The first Apollo asteroid ever discovered, came within 10.5 million km of Earth in 1932. Also has close encounters with Venus and Mars.
-*Apophis - Member of the Aten Group of near-asteroids, Apophis was estimated to have a 1 in 5500 chance of striking Earth in 2036, when it was discovered in 2004. The current estimation is 1 in 250,000 chance of striking us in 2036. It is scheduled to be tampered with by the Russians in 2012. Apophis is the 99942nd Minor Planet, with Ceres being the 1st. Eris is the 136199th and latest Minor Planet, so we've come a long way from Ceres.
-*Asbolus - This Centaur has a fresh wound, as detected by Hubble Space Telescope, that is thought to be the cause of why it no longer resides in the Kuiper Belt.
-*Asclepious - Discovered in 1989, this asteroid is noted for being an Apollo and having the ability to come within 600,000 km of Earth's surface.
 [[Category:Star systems]]