Portal:Solar System

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The Solar System Portal

The Sun and planets of the Solar System (distances not to scale)

The Solar System is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the masses that orbit it, most prominently its eight planets, of which Earth is one. The Solar System is an isolated single-star planetary system (not part of a larger star system) within the Milky Way Galaxy. The system formed about 4.6 billion years ago when a dense region of a molecular cloud collapsed, creating the Sun and a protoplanetary disc from which the orbiting bodies assembled.

The Sun accounts for 99.86% of the Solar System's total mass. Inside the Sun's core, hydrogen is fused into helium, releasing energy that is emitted through the Sun's photosphere. This creates the heliosphere and a decreasing temperature gradient across the Solar System.

The next most massive objects of the system are the eight planets, which by definition dominate the orbits they occupy. Closest to the Sun in order of increasing distance are the terrestrial planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. These four planets are part of the inner Solar System. Earth and Mars are the only planets that orbit within the Sun's habitable zone, in which sunlight can keep surface water liquid under atmospheric pressure. Beyond the frost line at about five astronomical units (AU), are the planets of the outer Solar System: two gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and two ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). Jupiter and Saturn possess nearly 90% of the non-stellar mass of the Solar System.

Objects of planetary mass that do not dominate their orbit but directly orbit the Sun are called dwarf planets. The International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center lists Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake, and Haumea as dwarf planets. Four other Solar System objects are generally identified as such: Orcus, Quaoar, Gonggong, and Sedna. Less massive than the dwarf planets are the vast number of small Solar System bodies, such as asteroids, comets, centaurs, meteoroids, and interplanetary dust clouds. The dwarf planet Ceres and many of these smaller bodies are located in the asteroid belt (between Mars's and Jupiter's orbit), while all other dwarf planets are members of populations of trans-Neptunian objects, which may be found in the Kuiper belt just outside Neptune or in the further scattered disc. (Full article...)

Selected article –

Callisto, the third largest moon in the Solar System

Callisto is a moon of the planet Jupiter, discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei. It is the third-largest moon in the Solar System and the second largest in the Jovian system, after Ganymede. It is not a part of the orbital resonance that affects three inner Galilean satellites—Io, Europa and Ganymede—and thus does not experience appreciable tidal heating. Callisto rotates synchronously with its orbital period, so the same hemisphere is always turned toward Jupiter. It is composed of approximately equal amounts of rock and ices, with a mean density of about 1.83 g/cm³. Compounds detected spectroscopically on the surface include water ice, carbon dioxide, silicates, and organic compounds. Investigation by the Galileo spacecraft revealed that Callisto may have only partially differentiated interior covered by a thick icy crust and possibly a subsurface ocean of liquid water at depths greater than 100 km. Prominent surface features include multi-ring structures, variously shaped impact craters, and chains of craters and associated scarps, ridges and deposits. Callisto is surrounded by an extremely thin atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide and probably molecular oxygen, as well as by a rather dense ionosphere. (Full article...)

More selected articles

Selected picture

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  Jupiter

  Image credit: NASA

  An animated view of Voyager I's approach to Jupiter. One frame of this image was taken each Jupiter day (approximately 10 hours) between January 6 and February 9, 1979, as the space probe flew from 58 million to 31 million kilometers from Jupiter during that time. The small, round, dark spots appearing in some frames are the shadows cast by the moons passing between Jupiter and the Sun, while the small, white flashes around the planet, are the moons themselves.
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  Moons of the Solar System

  Image credit: NASA, Deuar, TotoBaggins, KFP

  A natural satellite is an object that orbits a planet or other body larger than itself and which is not man-made. Such objects are often called moons. Shown here are 28 of the 240 moons of the Solar System, including those of the dwarf planets Pluto and Eris as well as that of asteroid 243 Ida. The Earth is included for scale.
• 

  

  Comet Hale-Bopp 29-03-1997

  Comet Hale–Bopp

  Credit: Philipp Salzgeber

  Comet Hale–Bopp sails across the sky in the vicinity of Pazin in Istria, Croatia. To the lower right of the comet the Andromeda Galaxy is also faintly visible. The comet was visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months, twice as long as the Great Comet of 1811. At perihelion, it shone brighter than any star in the sky except Sirius, and its two tails stretched 30-40 degrees across the sky. The passage of Hale-Bopp was notable also for inciting a degree of panic about comets not seen for decades. Rumours that the comet was being followed by an alien spacecraft inspired a mass suicide among followers of the Heaven's Gate cult.
• 
  Planet Mars

  Photo credit: NASA

  Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, is named after the Roman god of war because of its blood red color. Mars has two small, oddly-shaped moons, Phobos and Deimos, named after the sons of the Greek god Ares. At some point in the future Phobos will be broken up by gravitational forces.
• 
  Comet McNaught

  Photo credit: Fir0002

  Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught), as seen from Swifts Creek, Victoria, Australia. This non-periodic comet, the brightest in over 40 years, was discovered on August 7, 2006 by British-Australian astronomer Robert H. McNaught. It was first visible in the northern hemisphere, reaching perihelion on January 12, 2007 at a distance of 0.17 AU.
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  Cassini–Huygens

  Photograph credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute

  The Cassini–Huygens space-research project involved a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency to send a probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, including its rings and its natural satellites.
  
  This natural-color mosaic image, combining thirty photographs, was taken by the Cassini orbiter over the course of approximately two hours on 23 July 2008 as it panned its wide-angle camera across Saturn and its ring system as the planet approached equinox. Six moons are pictured in the panorama, with the largest, Titan, visible at the bottom left.
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  Lunar distance

  Model: Nickshanks

  Lunar distance is a measurement of the distance from the Earth to the Moon. This diagram shows the distance, averaging 384,400 km (238,900 mi), to scale, as well as the Earth and the Moon (scroll to see the entire image).
• 

  

  Mars

  Mars

  Credit: NASA

  Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, is named after the Roman god of war because of its blood red color. Mars has two small, oddly-shaped moons, Phobos and Deimos, named after the sons of the Greek god Ares. At some point in the future Phobos will be broken up by gravitational forces. The atmosphere on Mars is 95% carbon dioxide. In 2003 methane was also discovered in the atmosphere. Since methane is an unstable gas, this indicates that there must be (or have been within the last few hundred years) a source of the gas on the planet.
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  Geocentric model

  Photo credit: Joaquim Alves Gaspar

  Illustration of the Ptolemaic geocentric model of the Universe (the theory that the Earth is the center of the universe) by Portuguese cosmographer and cartographer Bartolomeu Velho. Taken from his treatise Cosmographia, made in Paris, 1568. Notice the distances of the bodies to the centre of the Earth (left) and the times of revolution, in years (right).
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  Great Red Spot

  Photo credit: Voyager 1

  False-color detail of Jupiter's atmosphere, imaged by Voyager 1, showing the Great Red Spot and a passing white oval. The wavy cloud pattern to the left of the Red Spot is a region of extraordinarily complex and variable wave motion. To give a sense of Jupiter's scale, the white oval storm directly below the Great Red Spot is approximately the same diameter as Earth.
• 

  

  Solar eclipse of 11 August 1999

  Solar eclipse of 1999 August 11

  Credit: Luc Viatour

  The solar eclipse of 1999 August 11, as seen from France. This was the most viewed total eclipse in human history, although some areas offered impaired visibility due to adverse weather conditions. The path of the Moon's shadow began in the Atlantic Ocean, before traversing Cornwall, northern France, southern Germany, Austria, Hungary and northern Serbia. Its maximum was in Romania, and it continued across the Black Sea, Turkey, Iran, southern Pakistan and India.
• 
  The Blue Marble

  Photo credit: The Apollo 17 crew

  The Blue Marble is a famous photograph of Earth. NASA officially credits the image to the entire Apollo 17 crew — Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Jack Schmitt — all of whom took photographic images during the mission. Apollo 17 passed over Africa during daylight hours and Antarctica is also illuminated. The photograph was taken approximately five hours after the spacecraft's launch, while en route to the Moon. Apollo 17, notably, was the last manned lunar mission; no humans since have been at a range where taking a "whole-Earth" photograph such as "The Blue Marble" would be possible.
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  Saturn

  Photo credit: Cassini orbiter

  Saturn eclipsing the Sun, as seen by the Cassini orbiter. Individual rings seen in this image include (in order, starting from most distant): E ring, Pallene ring (visible very faintly in an arc just below Saturn), G ring, Janus/Epimetheus ring (faint), F ring (narrow brightest feature), Main rings (A,B,C), and D ring (bluish, nearest Saturn). Interior to the G ring and above the brighter main rings is the pale dot of Earth.
• 

  

  Sunspot TRACE image

  Sunspot

  Credit: NASA/TRACE

  A TRACE image of sunspots on the surface, or photosphere, of the Sun from September 2002, is taken in the far ultraviolet on a relatively quiet day for solar activity. However, the image still shows a large sunspot group visible as a bright area near the horizon. Although sunspots are relatively cool regions on the surface of the Sun, the bright glowing gas flowing around the sunspots have a temperature of over one million °C (1.8 million °F). The high temperatures are thought to be related to the rapidly changing magnetic field loops that channel solar plasma.
• 
  Lakes of methane on Titan

  Image credit: Cassini orbiter

  This false-color radar image taken by the Cassini orbiter provides convincing evidence for large bodies of liquid methane on Titan. Images taken during a fly-by of the moon on July 22, 2006 show more than 75 large bodies of liquid ranging in diameter from three to 70km (1.9 to 43.6 mi) in the moon's northern hemisphere. Intensity in this colorized image is proportional to how much radar brightness is returned. The lakes, darker than the surrounding terrain, are emphasized here by tinting regions of low backscatter in blue. Radar-brighter regions are shown in tan. Smallest details in this image are about 500 m (1,640 ft) across. On January 3, 2007, NASA announced that scientists have "definitive evidence of lakes filled with methane on Saturn's moon Titan."
• 

  

  Jupiter

  Jupiter

  Credit: Cassini probe

  Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and by far the largest within the Solar System. It is 318 times more massive than Earth, with a diameter 11 times that of Earth, and with a volume 1300 times that of Earth. Its best known feature is the Great Red Spot, a storm larger than Earth, which was first observed by Galileo four centuries ago. This picture, taken by the Cassini orbiter was one of 26 thousand images taken of Jupiter during the course of its flyby and is the most detailed global color portrait of the planet ever produced.
• 

  

  Five global views of Venus by Magellan.

  Magellan (spacecraft)

  Credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  These images are composites of the complete radar image collection obtained by the Magellan mission. The Magellan spacecraft was launched aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis in May 1989 and began mapping the surface of Venus in September 1990. The spacecraft continued to orbit Venus for four years, returning high-resolution images, altimetry, thermal emissions and gravity maps of 98 percent of the surface. Magellan spacecraft operations ended on October 12, 1994, when the radio contact was lost with the spacecraft during its controlled descent into the deeper portions of the Venusian atmosphere.
• 

  

  Earthrise, as seen by Apollo 8

  Apollo 8

  Credit: William Anders

  Earthrise, the first occasion in which humans saw the Earth seemingly rising above the surface of the Moon, taken during the Apollo 8 mission on December 24, 1968. This view was seen by the crew at the beginning of its fourth orbit around the Moon, although the first photograph taken was in black-and-white. Note that the Earth is in shadow here. A photo of a fully lit Earth would not be taken until the Apollo 17 mission.
• 
  Rhea

  Photo credit: Cassini orbiter

  Rhea, at 1,528 kilometres (949 mi) across, is the second-largest moon of Saturn and the ninth largest moon in the Solar System. It was discovered in 1672 by Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who named it after the Titan Rhea of Greek mythology, "mother of the gods".
  
  The giant Tirawa impact basin is seen above and to the right of center. Tirawa, and another basin to its southwest, are both covered in impact craters, indicating they are quite ancient.
• 
  67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

  Photograph: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM

  A black-and-white photographic mosaic depicting the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, as photographed by the probe Rosetta. This Jupiter-family comet, which was originally from the Kuiper belt, is about 4.3 km (2.7 mi) across, has a current orbital period of 6.45 years, a rotation period of approximately 12.4 hours, and a maximum velocity of 135,000 km/h (38 km/s; 84,000 mph). It was first observed on photographic plates in 1969 by Soviet astronomers Klim Churyumov and Svetlana Gerasimenko, after whom it is named.
• 
  Retrograde and direct motion

  Image credit: Seav

  An animated image showing the apparent retrograde motion of Mars in 2003 as seen from Earth. All the true planets appear to periodically switch direction as they cross the sky. Because Earth completes its orbit in a shorter period of time than the planets outside its orbit, we periodically overtake them, like a faster car on a multi-lane highway. When this occurs, the planet will first appear to stop its eastward drift, and then drift back toward the west. Then, as Earth swings past the planet in its orbit, it appears to resume its normal motion west to east.
• 
  Phobos (moon)

  Photo credit: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

  Phobos, the larger and closer of the two moons of Mars, as seen from about 6,000 kilometres (3,700 mi) away. A small, irregularly shaped object, Phobos orbits about 9,377 km (5,827 mi) from the center of Mars, closer to its primary than any other planetary moon. The illuminated part of Phobos seen in the images is about 21 km (13 mi) across. The most prominent feature in the images is the large crater Stickney in the lower right. With a diameter of 9 km (5.6 mi), it is the largest feature on Phobos.
• 
  C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy)

  Photograph: NASA/Dan Burbank

  Comet Lovejoy is a long-period comet and Kreutz Sungrazer which was discovered in 2011. Named after its discoverer, Terry Lovejoy, the comet was nicknamed "The Great Christmas Comet" owing to it becoming visible near Christmas.

General images

The following are images from various Solar System-related articles on Wikipedia.

• 
  The motion of 'lights' moving across the sky is the basis of the classical definition of planets: wandering stars. (from Solar System)
• 
  Diagram of the early Solar System's protoplanetary disk, out of which Earth and other Solar System bodies formed (from Solar System)
• 
  Meteor Crater in Arizona. Created 50,000 years ago by an impactor about 50 metres (160 ft) across, it shows that the accretion of the Solar System is not over. (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  Diagram of the Milky Way, with galactic features and the relative position of the Solar System labeled. (from Solar System)
• 
  Solar system diagram by Emanuel Bowen in 1747, when neither Uranus, Neptune, nor the asteroid belts had yet been discovered. Orbits of planets are to scale, but the orbits of moons and the sizes of bodies are not. (from Solar System)
• 
  The four terrestrial planets Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars (from Solar System)
• 
  Pierre-Simon Laplace, one of the originators of the nebular hypothesis (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  Artist's conception of a protoplanetary disk (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  Hubble image of protoplanetary discs in the Orion Nebula, a stellar nursery approximately 25 ly across and estimated to be similar to the primordial nebula from which the Sun formed (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  Overview of the inner Solar System up to Jupiter's orbit (from Solar System)
• 
  Relative size of the Sun as it is now (inset) compared to its estimated future size as a red giant (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  The outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, compared to the inner planets Earth, Venus, Mars, and Mercury at the bottom right (from Solar System)
• 
  The current Sun compared to its peak size in the red-giant phase (from Solar System)
• 
  The Ring Nebula, a planetary nebula similar to what the Sun will become (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  The current orbits of Sedna, 2012 VP113, Leleākūhonua (pink), and other very distant objects (red, brown and cyan) along with the predicted orbit of the hypothetical Planet Nine (dark blue) (from Solar System)
• 
  Illustration of a protoplanetary disk that would have surrounded the Sun. (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  Simulation showing outer planets and Kuiper belt:
  a) Before Jupiter/Saturn 2:1 resonance
  b) Scattering of Kuiper belt objects into the Solar System after the orbital shift of Neptune
  c) After ejection of Kuiper belt bodies by Jupiter
  

    Orbit of Jupiter

    Orbit of Saturn

    Orbit of Uranus

    Orbit of Neptune

  (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  The sparse plasma (blue) and dust (white) in the tail of comet Hale–Bopp are being shaped by pressure from solar radiation and the solar wind, respectively.
• 
  All active Solar System space probes in 2026 (and a list of upcoming ones) (from Solar System)
• 
  Relative orbital distances in the Solar System visualized as a condensed rectangle (from Solar System)
• 
  Animations of the Solar System's outer planets orbiting. This animation is 100 times faster than the inner planet animation. (from Solar System)
• 
  Artist's conception of the giant impact thought to have formed the Moon (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  The four largest asteroids: Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, Hygiea. Only Ceres and Vesta have been visited by a spacecraft and thus have a detailed picture. (from Solar System)
• 
  Animations of the Solar System's inner planets orbiting. Each frame represents 2 days of motion. (from Solar System)
• 
  The Solar System (left) within the interstellar medium, with the different regions and their distances on a logarithmic scale (from Solar System)
• 
  Location of the Solar System within the Milky Way (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  The Sun in true color as viewed through a solar filter (from Solar System)
• 
  Orbit classification of Kuiper belt objects. Some clusters that are subject to orbital resonance are marked. (from Solar System)
• 
  Diagram of the Local Interstellar Cloud, the G-Cloud and surrounding stars. As of 2022, the exact position of the Solar System within the interstellar clouds remains an unresolved question in astronomy. (from Solar System)
• 
  Neptune and its moon Triton, taken by Voyager 2. Triton's orbit will eventually take it within Neptune's Roche limit, tearing it apart and possibly forming a new ring system. (from Formation and evolution of the Solar System)
• 
  Plot of objects around the Kuiper belt and other asteroid populations. J, S, U and N denotes Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. (from Solar System)
• 
  The orbital eccentricities and inclinations of the scattered disc population compared to the classical and resonant Kuiper belt objects (from Solar System)
• 
  Comparison of the distances between planets, with the white bar showing orbital variations. The size of the planets is not to scale. (from Solar System)
• 
  Diagram of the Sun's magnetosphere and helioshealth (from Solar System)
• 
  The planets, zodiacal light and meteor shower (top left of image) (from Solar System)
• 
  A color enhanced photograph from the Moon of a range of components of the Solar System. The three dots at the lower left are from left to right the planets Saturn, Mars, and Mercury, and in the middle of the picture rises the Sun's corona over the dark limb of the Moon, which is from the right lit by earthshine. (from Solar System)
• 
  An artist's impression of the Oort cloud, a region still well within the sphere of influence of the Solar System, including a depiction of the much further inside Kuiper belt (inset); the sizes of objects are over-scaled for visibility. (from Solar System)

Did you know –

• ...that New York's Panther Mountain (pictured) was the site of a prehistoric meteor crash?

• ...that the Beethoven crater in the Beethoven quadrangle on Mercury is the eleventh largest named impact crater in the Solar System?

• ...that the planet Mars appears red primarily because of a ubiquitous layer of dust containing nanophase ferric oxides?

• ...that the 1997 volcanic eruption of Pillan Patera on Jupiter's moon Io was the largest effusive eruption ever witnessed?

• ...that the south pole of the planet Mercury is located in the Bach quadrangle?

• ...that the Sweden Solar System is currently the world's largest scale model of the Solar System?

• ...that the dominant feature in the Shakespeare quadrangle is the 1300 km wide Caloris Planitia, the largest and best preserved impact basin on Mercury observed by the spacecraft Mariner 10?

• ...that the nearly circular shape of Lukanga Swamp, a wetland covering 2,600 km² in Central Province, Zambia, has led to speculation that it may be a crater formed by the impact of a meteorite?

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Solar System news

26 July 2026 – International Space Station expeditions

Expedition 74, the joint NASA–Roscosmos–ESA expedition aboard the International Space Station, ends after the Soyuz MS-28 undocks and lands on Earth in Kazakhstan. (CNN)

16 July 2026 –

Astronomers report the first observationally confirmed atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet within its star's habitable zone, after detecting helium escaping from the upper atmosphere of LHS 1140 b, a super-Earth approximately 49 light-years from Earth. (Space.com)

15 July 2026 – Discoveries of exoplanets

Astronomers directly image the exoplanet Beta Pictoris d next to its star, located 63 light-years away, using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. It is also reported to be fainter than its sibling Beta Pictoris b. The discovery is published in the The Astrophysical Journal. (ABC News) (Space.com)

16 June 2026 – Discoveries of exoplanets

The NASA's James Webb Space Telescope discovers that the Hot Jupiter exoplanet HD 80606 b is being roasted by its home star. The research findings were presented at the 248th American Astronomical Society in Pasedena, California, U.S. (Space.com)

9 June 2026 – Artemis program

NASA announces that its astronauts Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas, and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano will crew the Artemis III mission in late 2027. The mission's goal is to evaluate rendezvous and docking operations with SpaceX's Starship HLS and Blue Origin's Blue Moon spacecraft. (NBC News)

Major topics

Solar System: Planets (Definition · Planetary habitability · Terrestrial planets · Gas giants · Rings) · Dwarf planets (Plutoid) · Colonization · Discovery timelineˑ Exploration · Moons · Planetariums

Sun: Sunspot · Solar wind · Solar flare · Solar eclipse

Mercury: Geology · Exploration (Mariner 10 · MESSENGER · BepiColombo) · Transit

Venus: Geology · Atmosphere · Exploration (Venera · Mariner program 2/5/10 · Pioneer · Vega 1/2ˑ Magellan · Venus Express) · Transit

Earth: History · Geology · Geography · Atmosphere · Rotation

Moon: Geology · Selenography · Atmosphere · Exploration (Luna · Apollo 8/11) · Orbit · Lunar eclipse

Mars: Moons (Phobos · Deimos) · Geology · Geography · Atmosphere · Exploration (Mariner · Mars · Viking 1/2 · Pathfinder · MER)

Ceres: Exploration (Dawn)

Jupiter: Moons (Amalthea, Io · Europa · Ganymede · Callisto) · Rings · Atmosphere · Magnetosphere · Exploration (Pioneer 10/11 · Voyager 1/2 · Ulysses · Cassini · Galileo · New Horizons)

Saturn: Moons (Mimas · Enceladus · Tethys · Dione · Rhea · Titan · Iapetus) · Rings · Exploration (Pioneer 11 · Voyager 1/2 · Cassini–Huygens)

Uranus: Moons (Miranda · Ariel · Umbriel · Titania · Oberon) · Rings · Exploration (Voyager 2)

Neptune: Moons (Triton) · Rings · Exploration (Voyager 2)

Planets beyond Neptune

Pluto: Moons (Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, Styx) · Geology · Atmosphere · Exploration (New Horizons)

Haumea: Moons (Hi'iaka, Namaka) · Ring

Quaoar: Weywot · Rings

Makemake: S/2015 (136472) 1

Gonggong: Xiangliu

Eris: Dysnomia

Sedna

Small bodies: Meteoroids · Asteroids (Asteroid belt) · Centaurs · TNOs (Kuiper belt · Scattered disc · Oort cloud) · Comets (Hale–Bopp · Halley's · Hyakutake · Shoemaker–Levy 9)

Formation and evolution of the Solar System: History of Solar System formation and evolution hypotheses · Nebular hypothesis

See also: Featured content · Featured topic · Good articles · List of objects

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Italicized articles are on dwarf planets or major moons.

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