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Article: Solar System
- Article from:
- World of Earth Science
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Solar system
Earth's solar system is comprised of the
Sun
, nine major planets, some 100,000
asteroids
larger than 0.6 mi (1 km) in diameter, and perhaps 1 trillion cometary nuclei. While the major planets lie within 40 Astronomical Units (AU)
—
the average distance of Earth to the Sun
—
the outermost boundary of the solar system stretches to 1 million AU, one-third the way to the nearest star. Cosmologists and Astronomers assert that the solar system was formed through the collapse of a spinning cloud of interstellar gas and dust.
The central object in the solar system is the Sun. It is the largest and most massive object in the solar system; its diameter is 109 times that ...