solar system essay about planets

Solar System Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on solar system.

Our solar system consists of eight planets that revolve around the Sun, which is central to our solar system . These planets have broadly been classified into two categories that are inner planets and outer planets. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are called inner planets. The inner planets are closer to the Sun and they are smaller in size as compared to the outer planets. These are also referred to as the Terrestrial planets. And the other four Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are termed as the outer planets. These four are massive in size and are often referred to as Giant planets.

The smallest planet in our solar system is Mercury, which is also closest to the Sun. The geological features of Mercury consist of lobed ridges and impact craters. Being closest to the Sun the Mercury’s temperature sores extremely high during the day time. Mercury can go as high as 450 degree Celsius but surprisingly the nights here are freezing cold. Mercury has a diameter of 4,878 km and Mercury does not have any natural satellite like Earth.

Venus is also said to be the hottest planet of our solar system. It has a toxic atmosphere that always traps heat. Venus is also the brightest planet and it is visible to the naked eye. Venus has a thick silicate layer around an iron core which is also similar to that of Earth. Astronomers have seen traces of internal geological activity on Venus planet. Venus has a diameter of 12,104 km and it is just like Mars. Venus also does not have any natural satellite like Earth.

Earth is the largest inner planet. It is covered two-third with water. Earth is the only planet in our solar system where life is possible. Earth’s atmosphere which is rich in nitrogen and oxygen makes it fit for the survival of various species of flora and fauna. However human activities are negatively impacting its atmosphere. Earth has a diameter of 12,760 km and Earth has one natural satellite that is the moon.

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Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and it is often referred to as the Red Planet. This planet has a reddish appeal because of the iron oxide present on this planet. Mars planet is a cold planet and it has geological features similar to that of Earth. This is the only reason why it has captured the interest of astronomers like no other planet. This planet has traces of frozen ice caps and it has been found on the planet. Mars has a diameter of 6,787 km and it has two natural satellites.

It is the largest planet in our solar system. Jupiter has a strong magnetic field . Jupiter largely consists of helium and hydrogen. It has a Great Red Spot and cloud bands. The giant storm is believed to have raged here for hundreds of years. Jupiter has a diameter of 139,822 km and it has as many as 79 natural satellites which are much more than of Earth and Mars.

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun. It is also known for its ring system and these rings are made of tiny particles of ice and rock. Saturn’s atmosphere is quite like that of Jupiter because it is also largely composed of hydrogen and helium. Saturn has a diameter of 120,500 km and It has 62 natural satellites that are mainly composed of ice. As compare with Jupiter it has less satellite.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is the lightest of all the giant and outer planets. Presence of Methane in the atmosphere this Uranus planet has a blue tint. Uranus core is colder than the other giant planets and the planet orbits on its side. Uranus has a diameter of 51,120 km and it has 27 natural satellites.

Neptune is the last planet in our solar system. It is also the coldest of all the planets. Neptune is around the same size as the Uranus. And it is much more massive and dense. Neptune’s atmosphere is composed of helium, hydrogen, methane, and ammonia and it experiences extremely strong winds. It is the only planet in our solar system which is found by mathematical prediction. Neptune has a diameter of 49,530 km and it has 14 natural satellites which are more than of Earth and Mars.

Scientists and astronomers have been studying our solar system for centuries and then after they will findings are quite interesting. Various planets that form a part of our solar system have their own unique geological features and all are different from each other in several ways.

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Essay On Solar System

Essay on Solar System

500+ words essay on solar system.

The Sun and all other planets and celestial bodies that revolve around it are together called a solar system. Our solar system consists of eight planets and an asteroid belt. These planets are termed inner and outer planets. Earth, Venus, Mercury and Mars are considered inner planets closer to the Sun and smaller, also known as terrestrial planets. The remaining four planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, are outer planets that are massive and termed giant planets.

This essay will discuss our solar system and give a detailed summary of the eight planets.

Planets are large celestial bodies that revolve around the Sun in fixed orbits. They don’t have their own lights and use the Sun’s light to reflect light. As stars, planets don’t twinkle because they are closer to us. The planets Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, remain in the inner solar system, and the outer solar system planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Among all the planets, Earth is the only planet where life exists.

Satellites are objects that revolve around the Sun. Satellites can be categorised into two types – natural and man-made. For example, the Moon is a natural satellite that revolves around the Earth.

Man-made Satellite

Man-made satellites are artificial satellites sent to space to gather information about other planets. The first artificial satellite sent by India into space is Aryabhatta.

Asteroids are small, rocky objects that revolve around the Sun. Most asteroids are made of different rocks, but some have clays or metals, such as nickel and iron. Asteroids have irregular shapes and are not round-like planets.

Comets are irregularly shaped bodies composed of non-volatile grains and frozen gases. For example, Haley’s comet is a comet that occurs once every 76 years.

Dwarf planets

Dwarf planets are heavenly bodies that are too small to be considered a planet but too large to fall under smaller categories. Example: Pluto

Our Solar System

The nearest and the smallest planet in our solar system is Mercury. The planet is hidden under the Sunlight, which can only be seen before sunrise or sunset.

Venus is the closest and brightest planet in our solar system other than the Sun and the Moon. It is known as the morning and evening star because it appears in the eastern sky before Sunrise and in the western sky after sunset.

In our solar system, the Earth is the only planet that favours life. On this planet, life is possible because of conditions like water and atmosphere and the favourable distance from the Sun. The Earth’s rotation of axis is tilted, due to which we witness seasonal changes, and the Moon is the only natural satellite of planet Earth. From outer space, the colour of the Earth appears bluish-green as light from the landmass and water bodies gets reflected.

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is often called the “Red Planet” because the reddish iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance. Mars has two natural satellites.

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. So big that it can accommodate 1300 piles of Earth. However, it is only 318 times heavier than Earth. Jupiter has at least 67 Moons. Jupiter has a big red spot, a gigantic one twice as wide as the Earth, that has been swirling for many years.

Saturn is the second-largest planet in our solar system. It is unique as it has thousands of beautiful rings. Saturn has numerous Moons.

Uranus and Neptune

Uranus rotates from west to east. Its axis has a huge tilt, making it look like it’s spinning on its side. Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet in our solar system. It has powerful winds, which are more potent than any other planet in the solar system.

Scientists and astronomers have been studying our solar system for centuries, and the findings are pretty interesting. Various planets that form a part of our solar system have their unique geological features, and all are different from each other in several ways. But, unfortunately, after years of exploration, the Universe has still more mysteries that are left unknown.

From our BYJU’S website, students can also access CBSE Essays related to different topics. It will help students to get good marks in their exams.

Frequently Asked Questions on Solar system Essay

Are there any other systems present in the universe.

Research has shown that there are several other systems existing in the universe other than our Solar system.

Does the solar system only consist of planets?

No, the solar system also consists of dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, etc.

Has the Solar system fully been discovered?

Although there are several types of research going on, there are still many undiscovered and unreachable regions of the Solar system.

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Essay on Solar System

We see the sun every day shining in the sky and at night, we see the moon. Many other heavy bodies like satellites, meteoroids, and asteroids not visible to our naked eyes also make up the solar system. The sun and its planets together form the Solar System. The existence of the Solar System is about 4.6 billion years old.

100 Words Essay on The Solar System

200 words essay on the solar system, 500 words essay on the solar system.

The solar system comprises all the planets that revolve around the sun. The solar system also contains moons, asteroids, comets, minor planets, and different types of gases and dust.

The planets are categorised into two categories: internal planets and outer planets. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupyter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are called inner planets . Earlier, there were nine planets considered till 2006, but now, Pluto does not lie in the list of planets, it does not meet the standard set for the planets.

It is now termed a dwarf planet. In our solar system, the earth is the only planet where life exists. There are many solar systems that exist in the universe, it is more than 500. Our solar system includes the Kuiper belt that lies past Neptune’s orbit.

The Sun is a star that is made up of massive hot gas that gives us heat and light . The Sun is the focal point of the solar system, every substance in the solar system revolves around the Sun. There are eight planets in the solar system, Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and the smallest planet in the solar system whereas Neptune is the farthest one and Jupiter is the biggest planet in the solar system.

Only Earth has a supportive environment for living creatures. The Earth rotates around its own axis and revolves around the Sun, similarly the moon orbits around the Earth. For complete rotation the earth takes one day and for completing one cycle around the sun it takes 365 days. It is what we call one year and due to gravity we all are stuck to the surface of the Earth.

A Comet is a large body in space made of rocks, ice, and frozen gas. The centre of a comet is called the nucleus. Asteroids are also large bodies in space made of rocks and minerals, they mostly orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter in an area called the Asteroid Belt.

The solar system comprises eight planets, about 170 natural planetary satellites, and uncountable asteroids, meteorites, and comets. The solar system is situated within the Orion-Cygnus arm of the Milky way galaxy . Alpha Centauri made up of the stars Proxima Centauri, Alpha Centauri A, and Alpha Centauri B are the closest star systems to the solar system. The sun which is located at the centre of the solar system affects the motion of the body through its gravitational force. It contains more than 99% mass of the system.

Planets and Their Moons

Mercury | Mercury is the closest and smallest plate in the solar system, it orbits around the Sun and takes 87.97 earth days, it spins around slowly compared to Earth and it is slightly bigger than earth. It has a solid surface that is covered with craters and has a thin surface.

Venus | Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun. Venus is very similar to the earth in shape and densityVenus is the hottest planet in the solar system, it has a thick and toxic atmosphere covered with carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid in the form of yellowish clouds, and trapped heat.

Earth | Earth is the only planet that has a livable environment that sustains life and the ecosystem. It is the third closest and fifth largest planet in the solar system. On earth, life is possible for various reasons, but the most essential thing is the availability of water and the presence of oxygen. Earth is also known as the ‘Blue Planet’ because 71% of the earth’s surface is covered with seas, oceans, and large rivers of water

Mars | Mars is the fourth planet from the sun in the solar system. It appears as a red, orange, and radish ball because of the presence of iron oxide which is why Mars is also known as the ‘Red Planet’. Mars is positioned just next to the Earth. The evidence of water and oxygen raised hopes about the possibility of life on Mars.

Jupiter | Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and the first of the four gas giants. It is the fifth planet from the Sun. Jupiter also has a ring system like all the large gas planets, although these rings are not famous or as visible as Saturn’s ring.

Saturn | Saturn is the second largest and least dense planet in the solar system. Saturn can float in water because Saturn is made of gases, it's a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of earth. Saturn has rings that are made of gas and dust.

Uranus | Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system, it revolves around the sun and takes 84 earth years to complete one rotation around the earth. Uranus is called an ‘Ice Giant’ planet because it is covered with ice and Hydrogen gas.

Neptune | Neptune is the eighth planet and farthest planet from the sun in the solar system, its atmosphere is made of hydrogen, helium, and methane gas. Neptune is a dark, cold, and very windy planet in the solar system.

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We Appeared in

The solar system, explained

Our solar system is made up of the sun and all the amazing objects that travel around it.

The universe is filled with billions of star systems. Located inside galaxies, these cosmic arrangements are made up of at least one star and all the objects that travel around it, including planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and meteoroids. The star system we’re most familiar with, of course, is our own.

Home sweet home

If you were to look at a giant picture of space, zoom in on the Milky Way galaxy , and then zoom in again on one of its outer spiral arms, you’d find the solar system. Astronomers believe it formed about 4.5 billion years ago, when a massive interstellar cloud of gas and dust collapsed on itself, giving rise to the star that anchors our solar system—that big ball of warmth known as the sun.

Along with the sun, our cosmic neighborhood includes the eight major planets. The closest to the sun is Mercury , followed by Venus , Earth, and Mars . These are known as terrestrial planets, because they’re solid and rocky. Beyond the orbit of Mars, you’ll find the main asteroid belt , a region of space rocks left over from the formation of the planets. Next come the much bigger gas giants Jupiter and Saturn , which is known for its large ring systems made of ice, rock, or both. Farther out are the ice giants Uranus and Neptune . Beyond that, a host of smaller icy worlds congregate in an enormous stretch of space called the Kuiper Belt. Perhaps the most famous resident there is Pluto . Once considered the ninth planet, Pluto is now officially classified as a dwarf planet , along with three other Kuiper Belt objects and Ceres in the asteroid belt.

Moons and other matter

More than 150 moons orbit worlds in our solar system. Known as natural satellites, they orbit planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, and other debris. Among the planets, moons are more common in the outer reaches of the solar system. Mercury and Venus are moon-free, Mars has two small moons, and Earth has just one. Meanwhile, Jupiter and Saturn have dozens, and Uranus and Neptune each have more than 10. Even though it’s relatively small, Pluto has five moons, one of which is so close to Pluto in size that some astronomers argue Pluto and this moon, Charon, are a binary system.

Too small to be called planets, asteroids are rocky chunks that also orbit our sun along with the space rocks known as meteoroids. Tens of thousands of asteroids are gathered in the belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Comets, on the other hand, live inside the Kuiper Belt and even farther out in our solar system in a distant region called the Oort cloud .

Atmospheric conditions

The solar system is enveloped by a huge bubble called the heliosphere . Made of charged particles generated by the sun, the heliosphere shields planets and other objects from high-speed interstellar particles known as cosmic rays. Within the heliosphere, some of the planets are wrapped in their own bubbles—called magnetospheres —that protect them from the most harmful forms of solar radiation. Earth has a very strong magnetosphere, while Mars and Venus have none at all.

Most of the major planets also have atmospheres . Earth’s is composed mainly of nitrogen and oxygen—key for sustaining life. The atmospheres on terrestrial Venus and Mars are mostly carbon dioxide, while the thick atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are made primarily of hydrogen and helium. Mercury doesn’t have an atmosphere at all. Instead scientists refer to its extremely thin covering of oxygen, hydrogen, sodium, helium, and potassium as an exosphere.

Moons can have atmospheres, too, but Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is the only one known to have a thick atmosphere, which is made mostly of nitrogen.

Life beyond?

For centuries astronomers believed that Earth was the center of the universe, with the sun and all the other stars revolving around it. But in the 16th century, German mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus upended that theory by providing strong evidence that Earth and the other planets travel around the sun.

Today, astronomers are studying other stars in our galaxy that host planets, including some star systems like our own that have multiple planetary companions. Based on the thousands of known worlds spotted so far, scientists estimate that billions of planetary systems must exist in the Milky Way galaxy alone.

So does Earth have a twin somewhere in the universe? With ever-advancing telescopes, robots, and other tools, astronomers of the future are sure to find out.

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The Solar System and its planets

The Solar System is made up of the Sun and all of the smaller objects that move around it. Apart from the Sun, the largest members of the Solar System are the eight major planets. Nearest the Sun are four fairly small, rocky planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

Beyond Mars is the asteroid belt – a region populated by millions of rocky objects. These are left-overs from the formation of the planets, 4.5 billion years ago.

On the far side of the asteroid belt are the four gas giants - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. These planets are much bigger than Earth, but very lightweight for their size. They are mostly made of hydrogen and helium.

Until recently, the furthest known planet was an icy world called Pluto. However, Pluto is dwarfed by Earth’s Moon and many astronomers think it is too small to be called a true planet.

An object named Eris, which is at least as big as Pluto, was discovered very far from the Sun in 2005. More than 1,000 icy worlds such as Eris have been discovered beyond Pluto in recent years. These are called Kuiper Belt Objects. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union decided that Pluto and Eris must be classed as “dwarf planets”.

Even further out are the comets of the Oort Cloud. These are so far away that they are invisible in even the largest telescopes. Every so often one of these comets is disturbed and heads towards the Sun. It then becomes visible in the night sky.

Earth – traveller in space
Mars - the red planet
Saturn the gas giant
The Kuiper Belt

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School Education /

Essay on Solar System for School Students

Updated on
Dec 23, 2023

Essay on Solar System: Our solar system consists of one Sun and eight (formerly nine) planets. These eight planets are gravitationally bound by the Sun on their orbits. Apart from these eight planets, there are more than 210 known planetary satellites, asteroids, comets, and other icy bodies that are assembled in the Solar system.

The first four planets are called terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) the two gas planets (Jupiter and Saturn), and the other remaining ones are ice giants (Neptune and Uranus.)

Table of Contents

2 Inner Planets (Terrestrial Planets):
3 Outer Planets (Gas Giants)
5 FAQs

Learn about the smallest planet in our solar system

The Sun is the primary source of light and energy and is about 93 million miles from the Earth. It is the only star in our solar system and one of the more than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. The surface of the Sun is about 5,500 degrees Celsius (10,000 degrees Fahrenheit) hot and the temperature reaches 15 million Celsius (27 million Fahrenheit).

In terms of age and size, the Sun is 4.5 billion years old, composed of hydrogen and helium with a diameter of about 865,000 miles which is approximately 1.4 million kilometres.

Inner Planets (Terrestrial Planets):

The planets that are made of rocks and metals are known as Inner Planets or Terrestrial Planets. These planets are comparatively small in size compared to the other outer planets. The description of these four planets is as follows:

1. Mercury—The Swift Planet

Mercury is the swiftest planet in our solar system which completes an orbit around the Sun in just 88 Earth days. Its proximity to the Sun contributes to extreme temperature variations, from scorching highs to freezing lows.

With minimal atmosphere, Mercury lacks the protective blanket found on the Earth, exposing its surface to harsh solar radiation.

2. Venus—The Evening Star or Morning Star

Venus, which is often referred to as the evening star or morning star, depends on its position relative to the Sun. When Venus is trailing the Sun, it is the evening star, visible after the sunset. Conversely, when ahead of the Sun, it is the morning star, appearing before sunrise.

This dual identity arises from Venus´s orbit, positioning it closer to the Sun than Earth and causing varied visibility during different parts of the orbital journey.

3. Earth—Blue Planet

The home planet to all living things is Earth. It is the only planet that is known for the existence of life.

The surface of the Earth is made up of the crust, the core, and the mantle. It is a giant rocky planet with a circumference of about 40,075 kilometers; 71 percent or ¾ th of the Earth is covered with oceans and seas. A large area covered with water makes this planet a Blue Planet.

4. Mars—Red Planet

The fourth planet of the solar system, Mars, is the most explored planet by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA.) The reason behind so many missions or research for Mars is to hope for the existence of extraterrestrial life on the planet.

Apart from the possibility of life on Mars, the planet is also known for its presence of iron oxide that turns the planet reddish in appearance.

Want to know more about our Planet Earth? Read Essay on Earth for more information.

Outer Planets (Gas Giants)

5. Jupiter—King of Planets

Jupiter is the first planet of our solar system in the category of outer planets, also known as gas giants. According to NASA, the U.S. government agency, the planet’s size is more than twice that of all other planets combined.

Except for Jupiter’s size, the solar system’s first outer planet is made up of leftover gases from the formation of the Sun.

6. Saturn—Ringed Planet

The sixth planet from the Sun is Saturn. It is also known as the ringed planet and the second-largest solar system planet.

The three distinctive features that make Saturn different from other planets are its huge 145 moons, visibility from the Earth with the naked eye, and the seven main rings named D, C, B, A, F, G, and E from the outward side of the planet.

7. Uranus—Ice Giant

The seventh planet from the Sun, Uranus, is one of the two ice giants in the list of the outer solar system. The planet is featured with the third largest diameter which makes the planet the third largest in the solar system.

Other than massive size, Uranus is made up of three dense icy materials, methane, ammonia, and water – above all a small rocky core.

8. Neptune—Blue Giant

The third largest and eighth planet of the solar system is Neptune. According to NASA, the farthest planet from the Sun is more than 17 times Earth’s size and nearly 58 times the dimensions of Earth’s volume.

The cool blue planet, due to the absorption of infrared light by the planet’s Methane atmosphere, comprises a core with the capacity to pick up a lot of gas, making Neptune impossible for the existence of life.

Deepika Joshi

Deepika Joshi is an experienced content writer with expertise in creating educational and informative content. She has a year of experience writing content for speeches, essays, NCERT, study abroad and EdTech SaaS. Her strengths lie in conducting thorough research and ananlysis to provide accurate and up-to-date information to readers. She enjoys staying updated on new skills and knowledge, particulary in education domain. In her free time, she loves to read articles, and blogs with related to her field to further expand her expertise. In personal life, she loves creative writing and aspire to connect with innovative people who have fresh ideas to offer.

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How Our Solar System Formed

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Solar System Essay

Introduction to Essay Writing on Solar System on Vedantu

An essay is a piece of writing where an author expresses in detail all the information on a particular topic. An essay differs from other writing because it is more structured and it provides the author with their own perspective. In this particular essay, we shall know in detail about the solar system. Use this essay as a reference essay and try writing an essay on the solar system.

Let us begin our learning!

Essay on Solar System

The solar system consists of the sun, eight planets, and sixty-seven satellites of the planets, and a large number of small bodies (comets and asteroids). Earlier, Pluto was considered the smallest planet but now Pluto is not recognized anymore as a planet. The inner solar system comprises Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune form the outer solar system. These four planets are massive in size; hence they are called Giant Planets. Each planet revolves around the sun in its own orbits at its own speed.

Let us explore all the celestial bodies present in the Solar system.

The Sun was born 4.6 billions of years ago and it was formed from a giant rotating cloud of gasses and dust known as solar Nebula. The sun is the biggest star present at the center of the solar system. It is a self-luminous sphere of gasses. Its gravitational force holds the entire solar system. It has a radius of 695,508 kilometers and is 150 million kilometers away from Earth.

Mercury is the smallest and closest planet to the sun. It is also called Swift planet because it completes its revolution in 88 earth days. Its diameter is only one third of Earth but its density is about the same. The temperature of this planet is as high as 450 degrees Celsius in the mornings and nights are freezing cold. The surface of this planet is filled with craters, mountains and valleys.

Venus is the second closest planet to the sun and the hottest. Venus is the brightest planet and hence called the morning star. Venus is named after the Roman Goddess of love and beauty. Venus completes one revolution around the sun in 255 earth days. Venus spins clockwise on its orbits unlike other planets. Its surface is covered with clouds, craters, mountains and lava plains.

The third planet in the solar system is Earth. This is the only planet that sustains life. It is called the Blue planet because 70% of the earth's surface is covered with water. Earth takes 365 days to complete one revolution around the sun. This planet has only one natural satellite, the Moon.

The fourth planet from the sun in the solar system is Mars. It appears as a red-orange ball because of the presence of iron oxide and so it is called the Red planet. It is the second smallest planet after Mercury. Mars is named after the Roman God of war. Its surface is covered with volcanoes, craters all over.

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. Jupiter is rich in hydrogen and helium gas and so it is also called a Gas Giant planet. Jupiter takes 4333 earth days to complete one revolution around the sun. This planet has 79 satellites. Jupiter has four rings.

Saturn is the least dense planet in the solar system. It is the second-largest planet. Saturn can float in water because it is made up of gasses like helium. The beautiful rings around the planet are made up of bits of ice, rock, and dust. Saturn revolves very slowly around the sun. This planet is named after the Roman God of agriculture and wealth.

Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system. It takes 84 earth years to complete one revolution around the sun. Uranus is called an ice giant planet because its layer is made of ice and hydrogen, helium and methane. Uranus looks blue in color because of the presence of methane. Uranus has 27 satellites.

Neptune is the eighth and the farthest planet from the sun in the solar system. Neptune is named after the Roman God of the sea. Its atmosphere is made up of hydrogen, helium and methane and the presence of methane gives the color blue to the planet. It takes 165 earth years to complete one revolution. Neptune has 6 rings.

Comets and Asteroids:

Comets and Asteroids are the small celestial bodies that rotate around the sun. Asteroids are made up of rocks, metals and water. Comets are made up of frozen ammonia, methane and small amounts of rocky material.

FAQs on Solar System Essay

1. How many planets are there in the solar system?

There are eight planets in the solar system.

2. Is the sun a planet or star?

The sun is a big star located at the centre of the solar system.

3. Which planet sustains life?

The Earth planet sustains life.

4. Which is the coldest planet in the solar system?

Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system.

5. How to write well on any topic?

It is very important for the students to learn to write on their own. To write a good essay students should follow the following steps -

Try to understand the topic you want to write about

Read from multiple sources to get an idea of the topic

Prepare a structure that is what all you want to cover in your writing

Note down all the important points according to your structure

Arrange the collected information in the pre-decided structure

Remember to keep your readers engaged in your essay

Try to use idea and words which doesn't hurt anyone's emotions

Start writing and with time you would get better in the process

You can also send us your essays or writing which will be evaluated by the faculty.

6. What should be the structure on which an essay can be written?

Like every writing, an essay also has three parts that are the introduction, body, and conclusion. Keep the introduction very interesting, get the attention of your reader by starting with a short story then gradually introduce your topic through that story. Secondly, make the audience aware of the keywords of the topic. In the body, write in detail about the topic like state the historical, economical, social, environmental, cultural factors of your topic. And then conclude your essay by summarizing the key message and the takeaways of the essay. Try to practice with this framework and in due course of time, you will be able to write an excellent essay. Also, try to read from some great essays.

7. What is the process of planet formation called?

The process by which planets are formed is called planetesimals. In the process, the clouds of gasses came together due to gravitational differences . The area of more clouds had higher gravitation and thus attracted more clouds towards them. The ball of clouds takes a round shape through the process of accretion.

Read the article on Solar systems on the website of Vedantu.

8. What are terrestrial and jovian planets?

Terrestrial planets are planets closer to the Sun, it is also called inner planets. These planets are also called Earth-like planets as their features are similar to the Earth. It includes four planets which are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Whereas jovian planets are the outer planets which are farther from the Sun. They are also called Jupiter-like planets as they share features similar to Jupiter. It includes Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

9. Can we draw diagrams in an essay?

Some diagrammatic representation in an essay can be done. However, it is recommended that we should avoid drawing diagrams in an essay as it breaks the flow of the writing. Read some good essays to improve your writing style.

The Origins of the Solar System Essay

Introduction, the nebular hypothesis, origin of the molecular cloud, runaway star hypothesis, formation of the sun and planets, creation of the earth, formation of the oceans: comet/proto-planet impact theory, reference list.

The origin of the Sun and its orbiting planets has been a point of hypothesis and conjecture ever since man looked upon the stars and planets and wondered about their origins. For the ancient Greek and Roman civilization the celestial bodies they observed in the sky were thought of as Gods and Goddesses, looking down up the Earth from some form of godlike platform. Today, it is an established fact that the heavenly bodies we see in the night sky are composed of planets and stars, celestial bodies of rock, gas and varying forms of elements that were formed billions of years ago. Even though such objects have been observed for hundreds of years it is only within the last 200 that humanity has begun to understand their unique qualities. While there have been conjectures, varying hypothesis and age old established theories what must be understood is that as the science of astronomy evolves humanity begins to slowly adapt to new information, new discoveries and subsequent re-evaluations of what we knew of as fact. For example, early studies of astronomy adopted the geocentric model in that they believed that the sun, planets, moon and stars revolved around the Earth, not only that there was also the belief that the Earth was in fact flat (Copernicus, 2009: 83). It is based on this that when examining the established theories on the origins of the solar system one must do so with both an open yet skeptical mind, taking into account the given data and observations yet not clearly adhering to any one theory as being definitive proof.

Another interesting topic that should be taken note of is the origin of the Earth itself for just as there have been numerous theories as to the origin of the solar system there have been a plethora of theories which have attempted to determine the origin of the Earth itself. Our home planet is unique in that it is the only planet within our solar system that has sufficiently developed to be able to support life. While there have been varying accounts of how life came to be on Earth, with religion and science vying for attention, the fact remains that the uniqueness of our planet should not be underestimated and as such bodes a certain degree of curiosity as to the origins of the unique circumstances that enabled Earth to become what it is today. It is based on the various questions presented that this paper will explore the origins of the solar system and of Earth itself in order to attain a clear picture of where it came from and what its possible end could be.

Artist Representation of Pre-Solar Nebula

Currently, one of the most widely accepted theories regarding the formation of the solar system is that of the nebular hypothesis which states that the solar system originated from a molecular cloud wherein through the introduction of an external force caused a gravitational collapse of the fragment resulting in the creation of A pre-solar nebula that would eventually become our solar system (Glassmeier, 2006: 1 – 5). While there has been no definitive evidence as to the exact origin of the external force that caused a section of the molecular cloud to collapse rather than dispersing it into space it is theorized that the energy from a nearby supernova produced sufficient enough force to cause the collapse and help trigger the necessary events needed to create the solar system. While few studies dispute the nebular hypothesis several do call into question the theory that a supernova caused the initial collapse. Studies such as those by Woolfson (2010) state that the energies from a supernova instead of causing a section of the molecular cloud to collapse would have actually dispersed a majority of the cloud into space thus preventing the formation of the solar system (Woolfson, 2000: 1 – 15). Furthermore, while the nebular hypothesis has been well established as a guiding concept in understanding the creation of celestial bodies little is known as to the precise origins of the molecular cloud that gave birth to the solar system itself. Several scientists such as Lognonne et al. (2007) state that origin of the Sun and its surrounding planets was a molecular cloud and go to great lengths explaining how it led to the creation of the solar system yet a lot of studies neglect to mention how the molecular cloud came to be in the first place (Lognonne et al., 2007: 1 -3)

While this paper has so far expounded on the nebular theory involving the Solar system’s origins as coming from a giant molecular cloud a rather interesting question comes to mind, “if the origin of the solar system is that of a giant molecular cloud where did the molecular cloud come from?”. Studies such as those by Sorrell (2008) explain that while our own sun is 4.5 billion years old the age of the universe itself has been estimated at roughly 13.75 billion years (estimate subject to change due to varying accounts as to the proper calculation) (Sorrell, 2008: 45 – 49). Furthermore it must be noted that our sun is not the oldest sun in the universe let alone in our galaxy and in fact can be considered in the prime of its “youth” as a main sequence star (Naylor, 2009: 432). It has been theorized by researchers such as Freire (2008) that a few billion years after the Big Bang, Super Massive stars, many times the temperature of our current sun and several times its size, were among the first stars to form within the universe (Freire, 2008: 459-460). These celestial bodies were able to grow to such great size due to less “competition” for available materials in order to coalesce into stars; it must be noted though that at this point in time planets were unable to form due to the lack of heavier elements in which a sufficient enough solid mass could coalesce into a planet (Dessart, 2010: 2113-2125).

Rather interestingly, it was actually due to the inherent instability of Super Massive stars that the universe became what it is today; this is due to the theory that as a direct result of their internal instability most of the original Super Massive stars became supernovas which actually caused the original molecular clouds in the universe to form (Dessart et al., 2010: 2120 – 2125). The original state of the universe was actually more “pure” in the sense that there was a distinct lack of heavier elements, as such the question of “where did the heavier elements come from?” comes to mind. This is actually resolved by looking at the activity of our own sun wherein through a process called stellar nucleosynthesis in which the nuclear reactions within the sun itself is able to help build the nuclei of elements that are heavier than hydrogen (Chiosi, 2010).

Runaway Star Captured by Hubble Space Telescope

In relation to the explanation of the origins of the molecular cloud as coming from the debris from Super Massive stars Courtland (2010) presents a new theory that details exactly how the molecular cloud that spawned the solar system came to be. In her study which involved the examination of various meteorites she discovered that sealed within the rock were calcium-aluminum rich incisions (Al-26) that could only have been formed by stars that were at least 10 times as massive as the sun (Courtland, 2010: 8). Due to the fact that Super Massive stars usually form within clusters with Al 26 usually decaying rapidly due to the intense heat within such clusters it is hypothesized by Courtland (2010) that a run away must have been tossed out of its orbit as a direct result of either an explosion of a nearby Super Massive star or due to combined gravitational push by its sibling stars within the cluster (Courtland, 2010: 8). Due to Super Massive stars having a relatively short life cycle when the star became a supernova the dispersed molecules and elements became the molecular cloud that we know of today as being the primary basis of the nebular hypothesis.

Creation of the Sun

Since this paper has now established the various theories which attempt to explain the origins of the molecular cloud that brought about the creation of the solar it is now necessary to explain the current prevailing theory on how the planets and the creation of the sun came about. As mentioned earlier, in the section detailing the nebular theory, it was explained that as a direct result of a gravitational collapse of a section of the molecular cloud this precipitated the creation of the solar system (Boeyens, 2009: 493-499). A better explanation of this would be that as section of the nebula collapsed this produced a certain degree of angular momentum wherein the nebula actually began to spin faster as it collapsed in on itself. This spinning combined within the collapse produced a great deal of kinetic energy within the core of the molecular cloud until the result was a contraction of the center of the molecular cloud, which had now become a disc shaped object, into what is known as a proto-star, namely a star that has yet to have hydrogen fusion occur at its core (Boeyens, 2009: 493-499). Within 50 million years the internal temperature and pressure of the core itself was able to build to sufficient levels resulting in the start of hydrogen fusion marking the entry of the sun into its life as a main sequence star (Boeyens, 2009: 493-499)

Theory of Accretion

The theory of accretion is currently the most widely accepted theory proposing the creation of the planets, in it the theory indicates that the leftover material from the sun’s creation continued to spin around the sun slowly clumping together piece by piece until larger dust shaped particles were created (Ogihara et al., 2007: 522-530). Gradually these dust particles also began clumping together resulting in the creation of larger and larger objects until finally the entire solar system was composed of literally dozens of moon sized objects that crashed into each over a period of several million years (Ogihara et al., 2007: 522-530). It must be noted that the reason why such a process didn’t just create a system of bits and pieces of rock is due to the fact that these moon sized objects actually had viscous outer cores in the sense that their composition was similar to lava due to the high temperatures of the sun at the time and the process of accretion itself. As such when the objects collided what resulted was not a titanic clash that mutually shattered the objects but rather a process where both objects combined to form a larger structure or surfaces were “swapped” in the sense that certain parts of either proto-planet’s surface accreted to the colliding object (Ogihara et al., 2007: 522-530).

Originally the Earth was a proto-planet no bigger than the moon yet over several million years the process of accretion was able to slowly build up the Earth to its present shape. It must be noted though that the early outer core of the planet was fluid in that due to the intense heat present at the time metals that had accumulated on the planet’s surface slowly submerged into the inner core creating the metallic core that is present today (Robin, 2008: 4061 -4075). Within 150 million years of the planet reaching its current mass the surface sufficiently cooled resulting in the creation of a primitive crust, yet unlike today the surface of the Earth is estimated by studies as being roughly 1600 degrees Celsius with numerous volcanoes dotting the landscape releasing gases into the atmosphere which formed the initial atmosphere of the planet which was kept in place by Earth’s inherent gravity (Robin, 2008: 4061 -4075).

Most scientists agree that the presence of water on the Earth was the pivotal necessity necessary in order for life to start on the planet. When examining the process of Earth’s creation though there seems to be few indicators of water actually forming directly from the process of creation or within the Earth itself (Robin, 2008: 4061 -4075). One theory that attempts to explain this is the comet/proto-planet impact theory which states that proto-planets, planetoids and comets that were composed of ice were actually prevalent in the inner system during the later stages of the process of accretion. (Robin, 2008: 4061 -4075) As such as the Earth continued to orbit around the sun it supposedly impact millions of comets along with several icy proto-planets to create the water that can be seen in the oceans today. In fact, 4.4 billion years after the creation of the sun the Earth had actually sufficiently cooled enough to actually create clouds, rain, and the even oceans on the planets surface (Robin, 2008: 4061 -4075). This particular period marks the creation of the atmosphere that is present in the world today which is a combination of oxygen, carbon dioxide and other gases.

By the end of this paper it has become apparent that the process of creation of our solar system and even of our planet has been an accumulation of fortunate incidents that culminated in humanity evolving into its present state. When examining the theories explaining the creation of the molecular cloud, how Courtland (2010) presented the notion that the molecular cloud our present system came from originated from a rogue Super Massive star that coincidentally was shot out of its group by gravitational forces, that it was able to travel far enough to an area ideal enough for uninterrupted growth, that the creation of our planet was in the right place, at the right time with readily available water literally crashing into the planet in order to support life; a combination of all of these completely coincidental factors almost leads one to believe that the creation of humanity itself was no accident but on purpose. On the other hand there are quite literally billions upon billions of solar systems within the universe and it might actually be the case that the process that created the Earth is not so coincidental and that somewhere out there life similarly exists on thousands of planetary systems with the exact same composition as that of humanity yet far away enough that we cannot see the similarities at the present.

Boeyens, JA 2009, ‘Commensurability in the solar system’, Physics Essays , 22, 4, pp. 493-499, Academic Search Premier.

‘Copernicus’ 2009, American Heritage Student Science Dictionary , p. 83, Science Reference Center.

Courtland, R 2010, ‘Runaway star may have spawned the solar system’, New Scientist , 205, 2754, p. 8, Academic Search Premier.

Chiosi, C 2010, ‘Primordial and Stellar Nucleosynthesis Chemical Evolution of Galaxies’, AIP Conference Proceedings , 1213, 1, pp. 42-63, Academic Search Premier.

Dessart, L, Livne, E, & Waldman, R 2010, ‘Shock-heating of stellar envelopes: a possible common mechanism at the origin of explosions and eruptions in massive stars’, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , 405, 4, pp. 2113-2131, Academic Search Premier.

Fazekas, A, (2010), Hubble telescope catches superfast runaway star . Web.

Freire, PC 2008, ‘Super-Massive Neutron Stars’, AIP Conference Proceedings , 983, 1, pp. 459-463, Academic Search Premier.

Glassmeier, K, Boehnhardt, H, Koschny, D, Kührt, E, & Richter, I 2006, ‘The Rosetta Mission: Flying Towards the Origin of the Solar System’, Space Science Reviews , 128, 1-4, pp. 1-21, Academic Search Premier.

Lognonne, P, Des Marais, D, Raulin, F, & Fishbaugh, K 2007, ‘Epilogue: The Origins of Life in the Solar System and Future Exploration’, Space Science Reviews , 129, 1-3, pp. 301-304, Academic Search Premier.

McFadden, L, Weissman, P, & Johnson, T 2007, Encyclopedia of the Solar System , Elsevier LTD., eBook Collection. Web.

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Naylor, T 2009, ‘Are pre-main-sequence stars older than we thought?’, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , 399, 1, pp. 432-442, Academic Search Premier.

N.I.. (2010). The Creation of the Earth. Web.

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Sorrell, WH 2008, ‘The cosmic age crisis and the Hubble constant in a non-expanding universe’, Astrophysics & Space Science , 317, 1/2, pp. 45-58, Academic Search Premier.

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Essay on Solar System and Planets in English for Children and Students

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Our solar system consists of a sun, eight planets, satellites, dwarf planets, asteroids, meteoroids and comets. The eight planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Earlier it had nine planets. However, Pluto, the ninth planet does not meet the latest standards set for the planets. It has now been termed as a dwarf planet thereby increasing the count of the dwarf planets in our solar system to five.

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Long and Short Essays on Solar System and Planets in English

Here are long and short essay on solar system and planets in English, to help you with the topic in your exams or essay writing/debate competitions.

After going through these solar system and planets essay, you will know about the formation of solar system, when the planets were discovered, the dwarf planets, satellites and characteristics of individual planets etc.

All in all, these Solar System and Planets Essays will make you familiar with the universe we are a part of, so much so, that you can confidently take part in debates, talk shows and discussions, on our solar system and its planets. Please go through these essays to select your needed ones:

Short Essay on Solar System and Planets (200 words)

The universe is massive. It is much bigger than we can imagine and our solar system is just a small part of it. Our solar system houses a big, bright star called the Sun. The Sun is a rich source of electromagnetic energy that it exudes in the form of light and heat. There are eight planets in our solar system namely, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. These planets revolve around the sun in a fixed path referred to as the orbit. Several other smaller objects also move around the sun.

Many planets in our solar system have natural satellites called the moon. While Earth has one moon, Mars has two, Neptune has 14 moons, Uranus has 27 moons, Saturn has 62 moons and Jupiter has as many as 79 moons. Even the dwarf planet Pluto has 5 moons. Mercury and Venus, on the other hand, do not have any moon. Just as the planets move around the Sun in a fixed path, moons orbit around their respective planets.

In addition to the Sun, planets and moons, our solar system consists of several other celestial bodies called the comets, asteroids and meteoroids. While our solar system has only one star, many other solar systems are known to have at least two stars.

Essay on Solar System and Planets (300 words)

Introduction

Our solar system was formed billions of years ago. It consists of numerous celestial bodies including planets, satellites, asteroids, comets, meteorites and a massive star. Our solar system forms a part of the Milky Way Galaxy. Various celestial bodies in our solar system revolve around the Sun directly or indirectly.

The Formation of the Solar System

It is believed that around 4.6 billion years ago, the gravitational collapse of a giant interstellar molecular cloud gave shape to our solar system. Major part of the collapsing mass collated at the centre, that formed the Sun. The remaining mass flattened into a proto planetary disk and formed the planets, satellites and other objects in the solar system. Planet Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system, contains major chunk of the remaining mass.

Our solar system is believed to have evolved substantially since its inception. Many new moons have come into shape from the gases and dust around the planets. Several collisions among the celestial bodies have also occurred and still continue to occur thereby contributing to the evolution of the solar system.

The Discovery of Planets

For thousands of years astronomers believed that Earth was stationary and formed the centre of the universe. It was in the 18 th century that the astronomers accepted that Earth orbits around the Sun.

In 2 nd millennium BC, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were identified by ancient Babylonian astronomers. Later, Nicolaus Copernicus also identified them. Uranus was discovered by famous astronomer, Sir William Herschel in 1781. Neptune was discovered by English astronomer and mathematician, John Couch Adams in the year 1846. It was in the year 1930 that the ninth planet, Pluto was discovered. Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto which is now identified as a dwarf planet.

The study of the universe and heavenly bodies is one of the most fascinating studies. Through continuous research, astronomers have found out several surprising facts about the universe and our solar system. Our solar system is ever evolving and newer facts are being discovered and studied by researchers year after year.

Essay on Solar System and Planets (400 words)

Celestial bodies are objects that naturally occur in the observable universe. These include the stars, natural satellites, planets, asteroids, galaxies, comets and meteorites. Our solar system consists of a Sun, eight planets their moons, five dwarf planets and asteroids among other celestial bodies. Brief information about each of the celestial bodies present in our solar system is given below.

The Sun is the only star on our solar system. It is stationary and the other objects in our solar system revolve around it. It is the most massive component of our solar system. Research states that it comprises of 99.86% of the entire mass of our solar system.

The Planets

There are eight planets in the solar system. These are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The planets have been divided into two groups – Terrestrial Planets and Giant Planets. Planets vary based on their size, geological features, mass, number of satellites and various other factors. No traces of life have been found on any planet apart from Earth.

The Dwarf Planets

There are five dwarf planets in our solar system. These are Pluto, Ceres, Haumea, Eris and Makemake. While Ceres is situated in the asteroid belt others are located in the outer solar system. Dwarf planets are quite like the full size planets. The only difference is that the full size planets have cleared the objects in the area of their orbit whereas the dwarf planets have not.

Astronomers claim that there are six other objects in our solar system that are akin to the dwarf planets. These may be officially recognized as dwarf planets in the times to come.

There are a total of 193 moons in our solar system as per a research conducted in the year 2008. Out of these, 185 moons orbit around the full size planets and 8 moons revolve around the dwarf planets. Moons come in various sizes and shapes. They differ from each other in various ways. Most of the moons are airless. However, there are some that have atmosphere. Some even have hidden oceans. Each planet has different number of moons. Earth has just one moon while Jupiter has the highest number of moons. It has a total of 79 moons. Moons orbit around their respective planets.

In addition to the aforementioned, there are many other celestial bodies in our solar system. These include the Interplanetary Medium, Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud, asteroids and meteoroids. The Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud comprise of billions of icy objects. Each celestial body in our solar system is unique with its own set of features.

Essay on Solar System and Planets (500 words)

Our Solar System – A Small Part of the Universe

Our solar system is huge but nothing compared to the size of the universe. The universe is humongous and is believed to encompass numerous solar systems consisting of several planets, stars and other heavenly bodies. The universe is all space and time and it is not possible to calculate its spatial size. The size of the observable universe is estimated to be 93 billion light years.

The Galaxies and Solar Systems

Research shows that just like our solar system there are numerous other solar systems in the universe. The universe consists of billions of galaxies. Each of these galaxies has uncountable stars and many of these stars are said to have solar systems of their own. The size of the stars, the number of planets, the geological features of the planets, the number and size of the natural satellites vary from solar system to solar system.

Our solar system is a part of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way Galaxy is huge. It has more than 100 billion stars. More than 2500 stars with planets orbiting around them have been discovered in the Milky Way Galaxy. The study in this field is going on constantly. There are numerous planetary systems that the scientists and astronomers are yet to discover.

Our Solar System

Our solar system encompasses Sun which is a big ball of fire. Sun is stationary and forms the centre of our solar system. Eight planets namely, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune revolve around the Sun. Each of these planets move in a fixed path in its own set speed. The geological features of each of these planets are different. While Neptune is freezing cold, Venus is scorching hot. Similarly, while Jupiter is massively big, Mercury is comparatively very small in size. The planet is even smaller than some of the moons in our solar system. The atmosphere of each of the planets is different. Planets have been divided into two groups and the features of the planets within each group also vary vastly.

Earth is the only planet in our solar system which is known to have life. It is filled with vast oceans and gases such as oxygen and nitrogen that render life. Mars is said to share some similarities with Earth. Evidences of ice have been found on the planet. The planet is extremely cold and thus life there seems impossible. However, it is believed that the planet was once wet and warm and life existed here. Astronomers are studying this planet closely and have found many interesting facts about the same. These planets have different numbers of natural satellites.

Apart from this, there are five dwarf planets in our solar system. These are Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, Eris and Pluto. Earlier there were nine planets in our solar system and Pluto was one among them. However, it has now been termed as a dwarf planet.

The Universe is vast and there is a lot to study and discover. Scientists have studied our solar system deeply for centuries and are now moving beyond to study other solar systems and galaxies. A lot of interesting facts about this enchanting universe are likely to surface in the times to come.

Long Essay on Solar System and Planets (600 words)

Our solar system consists of eight planets that revolve around the Sun, which is central to our solar system. These planets have broadly been classified into two categories – inner planets and outer planets. There are four inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The inner planets are closer to the Sun and smaller in size as compared to the outer planets. These are also referred to as the Terrestrial planets. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are termed as the outer planets. These are massive in size and are often referred to as Giant planets.

Here is brief information about each of these planets:

The smallest planet in our solar system, Mercury is also the closest to the Sun. Its geological features consist of lobed ridges and impact craters. Being closest to the Sun, Mercury’s temperature sores extremely high during the day time. It can go as high as 450 degree Celsius. Surprisingly, the nights here are freezing cold.

Mercury has a diameter of 4,878 km. It does not have any natural satellite.

Venus is said to be the hottest planet of our solar system. It has a toxic atmosphere that traps heat. It is also the brightest planet and is visible to the naked eye. It has a thick silicate layer around an iron core which is similar to that of Earth. Astronomers have seen traces of internal geological activity on this planet.

Venus has a diameter of 12,104 km. Just like Mars, Venus also does not have any natural satellite.

Earth is the largest inner planet. Two-third of this planet is covered with water. It is the only planet in our solar system where life is known to exist. Earth’s atmosphere, which is rich in nitrogen and oxygen, makes it fit for the survival of various species of flora and fauna. However, human activities are having negative impact on its atmosphere.

Earth has a diameter of 12,760 km. It has one natural satellite, the moon.

Mars, the fourth planet from Sun, is often referred to as the Red Planet. The iron oxide present on this planet gives it a reddish appeal. The planet is cold and has geological features similar to that of Earth. This is the reason why it has captured the interest of astronomers like no other planet. Traces of frozen ice caps have been found on the planet.

Mars has a diameter of 6,787 km and two natural satellites.

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It has a strong magnetic field. It largely consists of helium and hydrogen. It has a Great Red Spot and cloud bands. A giant storm is believed to have raged here for hundreds of years.

Jupiter has a diameter of 139,822 km and has as many as 79 natural satellites.

Saturn is known for its ring system. These rings are made of tiny particles of ice and rock. Its atmosphere is quite like that of Jupiter as it is also largely composed of hydrogen and helium.

Saturn has a diameter of 120,500 km. It has 62 natural satellites that are mainly composed of ice.

Uranus, the seventh planet from Sun, is the lightest of all the giant, outer planets. It has a blue tint which is because of the presence of Methane in the atmosphere. Its core is colder than the other giant planets. The planet orbits on its side.

Uranus has a diameter of 51,120 km and 27 natural satellites.

The last planet in our solar system, Neptune is also the coldest of all. It is around the same size as the Uranus but is much more massive and dense. Neptune’s atmosphere is composed of helium, hydrogen, methane and ammonia. It experiences extremely strong winds. It is the only planet in our solar system which is found by mathematical prediction.

Neptune has a diameter of 49,530 km. It has 14 natural satellites.

Scientists and astronomers have been studying our solar system for centuries and the findings are quite interesting. Various planets that form a part of our solar system have their own unique geological features and are different from each other in several ways.

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Article contents

The formation and evolution of the solar system.

Mikhail Marov Mikhail Marov International Astronomical Union
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190647926.013.2
Published online: 24 May 2018

The formation and evolution of our solar system (and planetary systems around other stars) are among the most challenging and intriguing fields of modern science. As the product of a long history of cosmic matter evolution, this important branch of astrophysics is referred to as stellar-planetary cosmogony. Interdisciplinary by way of its content, it is based on fundamental theoretical concepts and available observational data on the processes of star formation. Modern observational data on stellar evolution, disc formation, and the discovery of extrasolar planets, as well as mechanical and cosmochemical properties of the solar system, place important constraints on the different scenarios developed, each supporting the basic cosmogony concept (as rooted in the Kant-Laplace hypothesis). Basically, the sequence of events includes fragmentation of an original interstellar molecular cloud, emergence of a primordial nebula, and accretion of a protoplanetary gas-dust disk around a parent star, followed by disk instability and break-up into primary solid bodies (planetesimals) and their collisional interactions, eventually forming a planet.

Recent decades have seen major advances in the field, due to in-depth theoretical and experimental studies. Such advances have clarified a new scenario, which largely supports simultaneous stellar-planetary formation. Here, the collapse of a protosolar nebula’s inner core gives rise to fusion ignition and star birth with an accretion disc left behind: its continuing evolution resulting ultimately in protoplanets and planetary formation. Astronomical observations have allowed us to resolve in great detail the turbulent structure of gas-dust disks and their dynamics in regard to solar system origin. Indeed radio isotope dating of chondrite meteorite samples has charted the age and the chronology of key processes in the formation of the solar system. Significant progress also has been made in the theoretical study and computer modeling of protoplanetary accretion disk thermal regimes; evaporation/condensation of primordial particles depending on their radial distance, mechanisms of clustering, collisions, and dynamics. However, these breakthroughs are yet insufficient to resolve many problems intrinsically related to planetary cosmogony. Significant new questions also have been posed, which require answers. Of great importance are questions on how contemporary natural conditions appeared on solar system planets: specifically, why the three neighbor inner planets—Earth, Venus, and Mars—reveal different evolutionary paths.

solar system
thermal regime
dust particles
planetesimals

Introduction

In the recent decades great progress has been achieved in the study of our closest space environment—the solar system. Space exploration jointly with the advanced ground-based astronomical observations dramatically expanded knowledge about our star—the Sun and all eight major planets with their numerous satellites and rings, as well as about countless minor bodies—asteroids, meteoroids, and comets and interplanetary space surrounding the Sun—the heliosphere. We knew a lot about the nature of these bodies with implication to the basic ideas of fundamental scientific value concerning the solar system formation and evolution. The discovery of circumstellar discs and especially planetary systems around other stars put this challenging problem of modern astronomy on new ground and allowed us to integrate different theoretical views alongside the data of observations and computer modeling to more coherent concepts. This is one of the most intriguing branches of astrophysics that used to be referred to as planetary cosmogony (Marov, 2015 ). Being multidisciplinary by its essence, it stands at the frontiers of natural science involving mathematics, physics, and chemistry with close relevance to biology when addressing the problem of life origin and proliferation.

Planets formation is a widespread although very complex process, believed to be the succession of several stages affected by different mechanisms of physical interactions, chemical transformations, and numerous perturbations in the gas-dust disk. Scenarios and model approach to the origin of protoplanetary nebulae and evolution are generally backed by observational data. The mechanical, astrophysical, and cosmochemical characteristics of the solar system serve as the starting concept for the formation of planets around stars. The solar system planets and satellites architecture, as well as existing patterns in the systems of extrasolar planets definitely point to a unified process of every system formation though with different constraints. Data available on surface properties and matter composition for the solar system planets when confronting the samples of material from their embryos (small bodies) and “debris” (meteorites) provide an insight into the probable sources, paths, and chronology of this process.

It is generally accepted that like other planetary systems, our solar system formed from an original molecular cloud (protosolar cloud) consisting mostly of hydrogen and helium with a rather small admixture of heavier elements. The process started with the collapse of some fragment of a huge molecular cloud. A major part of its mass concentrated in the center, forming protosun while the rest flattened out into a compressed gas-dust disk, the whole system keeping rotation owing to conservation of angular momentum. In the follow-up process of the disc continuing evolution, the planets with their satellites and swarm of asteroids and comets emerged, which ultimately constituted the solar system family. The lab data on the meteoritic minerals formed during the condensation of chemical elements as well as remelting of the condensed phases allow us to judge the thermodynamic conditions in the circumsolar disk and, in turn, serve as the most important cosmochemical constraints imposed on the numerous analytical and computer models being developed.

Basic Topics: Understanding and Context

Historical highlights.

The first attempts to understand how the planets have born and solar system structured were undertaken in the Middle Ages. In the 16th century , Italian monk, doctor of theology, and author Giordano Bruno voiced against the church dogma that Earth is center of the World, arguing instead for a configuration of the solar system with Earth orbiting the Sun. But the truth is never free, and it is often necessary to pay a high price for personal conviction, sometimes with one’s life. This is what happened to Giordano Bruno: For this proclaiming of the truth, he was sentenced by inquisition to be burned on a fire. Nicolas Copernicus, who revolutionized the World system concept, had a more fortunate fate, and we refer to his concept as the real breakthrough in astronomy and philosophy in general. Immanuel Kant, father of the German classic philosophy, in 1755 published the book General Natural History and Theory of the Sky based on a hypothesis put forward in 1749 by Sweden mystic author Emmanuel Swedenborg who suggested that stars are formed in the eddy motions of space nebula matter. Kant hypothesized that planets set up of a dusty cloud that he associated with original Chaos. Famous French mathematician Pier Simon Laplace independently put forward a nearly analogous idea and gave mathematical support to it. Basically, these ideas were preserved until now and underlie the principal concepts of the solar system origin.

Indeed, the hypotheses of Kant and Laplace put forward in the 18th century about the simultaneous formation of the Sun and the protoplanetary cloud, along with the idea of rotational instability responsible for the successive separation of plane concentric rings from the cloud periphery, underlie the current views. The solar system is currently believed to have formed 4.567 billion years ago through the gravitational collapse of a dense fragment (core) of an interstellar molecular cloud with a density > 10 −20 gcm −3 , a temperature T~5–30K, a mass larger than the solar one by 10–30%, and a dust mass fraction of ~1% (see, e.g., Cassen, 1994 ; Cassen & Summers, 1984 ). It is also believed that after the central compressed core of the cloud collapses giving birth to the central star, material from the outer cloud regions continues to accrete onto the disk, causing strong turbulization of the gas-dust medium due to the difference between specific angular momentum of the falling matter and the disk particulate matter involved in the azimuthal (Keplerian) rotation. Observations backed the starting concept that a certain part of the material from the parent cloud (nebula), with an appreciable angular momentum, remains in orbit around the central clump and is incorporated into the protoplanetary disk in the process of stellar collapse. Concurrently, disk matter continues to accrete on the protostar during 1–5 Ma (Myr) and during this time the mass flow decreases by two–three orders of magnitude, while the overall process of first solid bodies formation and eventually their growing to planets take another 10–100 Ma (see Dorofeeva & Makalkin, 2004 ; Lissauer & de Pater, 2013 ; Safronov, 1969 ).

Schematic view of the solar system formation from a collapsed fragment of molecular cloud following by the formation of the proto-Sun and protoplanetary disk, its breakup into individual ring clumps of solid particles giving birth to planetesimals, and ultimately planets through collisional interactions are shown in Figure 1a . A more detailed diagram of the protoplanetary nebula evolution according to Otto Schmidt (Schmidt, 1957 ) who referred to the pioneering ideas about fragmentation of a primordial dust layer including critical wavelength and mass (Gurevich & Lebedinsky, 1950 ) is shown in Figure 1b .

Figure 1a. A basic concept of the origin of the solar system. Scheme for the formation of the solar system, from the collapse of a molecular cloud fragment through the formation of the proto-Sun and protoplanetary disk (1,2), followed by its breakup into individual ring clumps of solid particles, eventually giving birth to planetesimals (3,4). Continuing collisional interactions of planetesimals ultimately leads to the formation of planets (5). Adapted from Wikipedia.

Figure 1b. A basic concept of the origin of the solar system. Evolution of the protoplanetary nebula according to O. Schmidt. Left side: Sequence of transformations of the original gas-dust disk in blobs growing into rocks and coalescing in clumps of planetesimals. The time span is approximately 10 4 –10 5 years. Right side: These embryos of planets continue to grow through mutual collisions, eventually to become protoplanets and ultimately a planetary system, here attributed to the solar system. The time span is about 10 8 years.

It involves the sequence of transformations of the original gas-dust disk in clumps due to growing instability and formation of planetesimals in mutual collisions. These basic ideas were later developed by several authors, forming the key publication (Goldreich & Ward, 1973 ; Safronov, 1969 ).

Important Constraints

When discussing the problem of the solar system origin, we first of all address some of its obvious mechanical and cosmochemical features serving as prerequisites and placing important constraints on the developed scenarios:

All planets orbit the Sun in the same prograde (anticlockwise when looking from the North World Pole) direction, in coincidence with the Sun’s intrinsic rotation around its axis. The orbits are nearly circular and have a very small inclination to the ecliptic—the imaginary plane containing the Earth’s circumsolar orbit. Similarly, all planets (except Venus and Uranus) rotate in prograde direction and the same is true for the majority of their satellites, which argues that planetary systems formed in a unified process from the same original disk matter. Satellites are locked in resonance with the planet’s intrinsic rotation and therefore they face the planet on the same side, similar to our Moon. The outermost satellites orbiting giant planets behave more randomly, exhibiting both prograde and retrograde orbits and rotations, and they are regarded as small bodies captured later on by the planet’s gravity field.

There is a peculiar mass and angular momentum distribution in the solar system: While the Sun comprises 99.8% of the whole solar system mass, the planets comprise nearly 98% of its angular momentum. Basically, this resulted from the process of disk evolution and planets formation, though it is not yet clear how the angular momentum redistribution in early solar system history has occurred.

There is similar cosmic abundance of non-volatile chemical elements in the Sun and most primitive meteorites (carbonaceous chondrites), which are viewed as original pristine substance partially inherited from the protosolar nebula and mostly lost. There is some evidence that inner planets were formed of the matter resembling that of chondrites meteorite composition and experienced dramatic transformations in the course of evolution, while gaseous-icy giant planets preserved their chemical composition essentially unmodified since the origin while the phase compositions have definitely changed as planets grew.

There exists an obvious correlation of the planetary bulk composition with their distance from the Sun (with a small exemption for Uranus and Neptune), in support of the condensation theory that favors the emergence of different substances from the hot gas disk depending on radial temperature distribution and thus, on the distance from the Sun. Indeed, the theory of condensation, postulating the successive emergence of high temperature and low temperature condensates from the protoplanetary disk matter depending on radial distance from the Sun, may be recognized invoking some geochemical and dynamical constraints. This fractionation is believed to be responsible for the rocky inner planets close to the Sun and gaseous-icy outer planets farther away, that is, rocky composition of the terrestrial planets containing many refractory elements/compounds and the mostly gaseous and icy composition of giant planets.

The composition of asteroids in the main asteroids belt between Mars and Jupiter orbits is intermediate between the silicate/metal rich inner planets and the volatile rich outer planets, which also brings support to the condensation theory and dynamical exchange. In turn, comets are mainly composed of water ice and other frozen volatiles, and these bodies retain the most pristine matter from which the solar system formed. Migration and collisional processes throughout the solar system history and matter transport appear to play the crucial role in the subsequent planet’s evolution. Surfaces of the terrestrial planets have been scarred by asteroidal and cometary impacts and painted with a veneer of volatiles and organic compounds made of potentially life-forming elements that under certain conditions transformed into a biological infestation, at least on Earth.

Discovery of circumstellar protoplanetary gas-dust discs and extrasolar planets became the great milestone in the advancement of planetary cosmogony. Structure and composition of disks and different configurations of the exoplanetary systems placed important constraints on the origin of protosolar nebula and various scenarios of the planetary system evolution and, based on this onslaught, fueled refining theories and computer modeling of the solar system origin on the comparative approach.

Cosmochemistry and Chronology of Evolution

Of primary importance is an opportunity of getting insight into the chronology of the key physical and chemical mechanisms responsible for the early solar system evolution. Study of meteorites is the main tool of cosmochemistry aimed to reconstruct the processes of matter origin and transformations in the protoplanetary disc and forming bodies.

The time sequence was established based on the measurements of ratios of long- and short-lived isotopes and products of their decay in meteoritic materials. The main isotopic systems used in the study were U, Th-Pb, Sm-Nd, Al-Mg, Mn-Cr, Rb-Sr, I-Xe, Hf-W. Many undifferentiated meteorites (chondrites) contain the refractory inclusions of microns to cm in size enriched in refractory elements such as Al and Ca ( C alcium A luminum I nclusions or CAIs). They were assumed to belong to the ancient solid material that condensed out near the Sun ( r < 0.5 AU) at Т ~2000–1700 K (Grossman, Ebel, & Simon, 2002 ; MacPherson, 2005 ; Meibom et al., 2007 ). These objects, including some ultra-refractory mineral nodules (Ivanova, Krot, Nagashima, & MacPherson, 2012 ; Ivanova, Lorenz, Krot, & MacPherson, 2015 ), enabled a determination of the absolute age of the solar system. The measured values vary from 4567.1 ± 0.1 Ma to 4568.67 ± 0.17 Ma (Amelin et al., 2010 ; Bouvier & Wadhwa, 2009 ; Shukolyukov & Lugmair, 2003 ), with the most reliable being 4567.30 ± 0.16 Ma (Connelly et al., 2012 ). Thus, the time of the solar system origin is determined with accuracy of better than ~1 Ma, or 0.02%. Concurrently, the absolute age of iron and stony meteorites of different petrological classes was defined from 1 to a few Ma younger CAI (McSween & Huss, 2010 ). Let us note that the submillimeter chondrules ( spherules ) embedded in stony meteorites and composed of ferromagnesian silicates are dated in the range from 4567.32 ± 0.42 to 4564.71 ± 0.30 Ma indicating an age gap between CAIs and chondrules with implication that chondrules formation lasted ~3 Ma. This time scale is in accord with protoplanetary disk lifetimes inferred from astronomical observations.

One may assume that during a few million years, interval accumulation and thermal evolution (differentiation) of the parent bodies of these ancient meteorites occurred. Provisionally the first primordial parent bodies of ~100 km in size formed in the very first few million years since the solar system origin. Such a size was sufficient for the body to experience differentiation due to intense heating by the short-lived 26 Al and 60 Fe nuclides with an iron core emergence. The subsequent core and silicate shell fragmentation caused by numerous collisions have been probably responsible for the existing iron and stony meteorites. Otherwise their existence is difficult to explain, in contrast to non-differentiated chondrites that experienced no melting by the exhausted short-lived isotopes heat source.

The above time scale is in accord with the results of computer modeling that argue that accretion of matter from the disk on the protosun terminated in 1–2.5 Ma after the system formation. The dust subdisk composed presumably of 1–10 cm particles is believed to form much earlier, in 0.01–0.1 Ma at radial distance r ~1 AU. Here critical density was achieved and gravitational instability developed. Evidently, this time was sufficient for accumulation and thermal evolution of the first solid bodies. Assuming that mass of the protoplanetary disc M d was ~0.1 M S and that with account for the disc partial dissipation ~0.1 M d ultimately entered the planets, we may estimate ~10 10 of ~100 km original bodies were born in the first ~2 Ma. This idea is in accord with the models favoring distribution of asteroids from the initial generation of planetesimals of nearly similar size on which chondrules have been presumably accreted (Bottke, Nesvorny, Grimm, Morbidelli, & O’Brien, 2006 ; Morbidelli, Bottke, Nesvorny, & Levison, 2009 ; Matsumoto, Oschino, Hasegawa, & Wakita, 2017 ).

Further Advancement and Current State

We shall now discuss the state of the art in our views on principal mechanisms of the solar system origin. In modern astronomy, the key consists of high resolution images and spectral features of objects relevant to planets formation at the different stages of evolution. In computer modeling, the focus is given to the theoretical treatment and development of robust models and effective algorithms allowing us to get insight into genesis of planetary system origin from primordial matter of the outer space involving disk formation, its radial/vertical compression, and dust distribution/size grow affecting the disc structure. Unfortunately, unlike protoplanetary accretion disks whose structure and evolution are accessible to astronomical observations, the mechanism of primary solid bodies set up in the gas-dust disk and their growing to planetary embryos remains rather speculative because cannot be yet tested experimentally. Hence, computer modeling is essentially the only tool to reconstruct the multiple processes involved with the use of observational constraints for models verification.

Computer and Lab Modeling

The matter of the protoplanetary gas-dust disk is a complex system of the different phase composition, densities, temperatures, and degrees of ionization, which vary with radial distance. Basically, it is an inhomogeneous medium composed of gas and dust particles of various sizes and origin. This matter, which is generally magnetized dusty plasma, is in a state of turbulence depending on the radial and azimuthal position of a parcel of matter (Marov & Kolesnichenko, 2013 ).When the main dynamical forces controlling the rotating disc flattening (gravitational and centrifugal) are in balance, weaker factors, such as the thermal/viscous processes, turbulence, and electromagnetic phenomena dominate the disk’s evolution. They certainly affect the condensation of volatiles, including first of all water, and bear significant effect on the relative content and abundance of gaseous species and solid particles, as well as disk energetic and angular momentum transport.

When the plasma effects are disregarded, the motion of a disk medium containing dust suspended in gas can be modeled most adequately within the framework of mechanics of heterogeneous turbulized media with allowance made for the physical-chemical properties of the phases, heat and mass transport, incident radiation/opacity changes, viscosity variations, chemical reactions, phase transitions, coagulation, fragmentation, etc. The rigorous mathematical treatment of the problem is presented in Marov and Kolesnichenko ( 2013 ). Specifically, it is focused on the dynamical interaction of turbulized gas and dust including modification of the turbulence energy of the carrier phase by solid particles (i.e., the reverse effect of the dust component on the turbulent and thermal regimes of the disk gas component); the influence of turbulence on the rates of phase transitions (evaporation, condensation); on the jump-like disperse particle accumulation processes such as coagulation and fragmentation during mutual collisions between particles in the mass flow; and, finally, on the settling of solid particles through the gas to the disk midplane, where they form a flattened dust layer—a geometrically thin subdisk.

Obviously, the presence of polydisperse (different particles’ size) admixture in a turbulized medium complicates significantly the disk hydrodynamics, contributing to the realization of additional regimes of cosmic matter flow. Note that the synergetic collective self-organization processes in the thermodynamically open system of the protoplanetary disk against the background of a large-scale shear flow of cosmic matter associated with its differential rotation are regarded as very important mechanisms shaping the properties of a viscous accretion disk at various stages of its evolution (Kolesnichenko & Marov, 2006b ; Nakagawa, Sekiya, & Hayashi, 1986 ).

Whatever is the character of events under consideration, it is clear that complex physical and chemical processes accompanying evolution of the heterogeneous medium where dust particles collisions domain, are responsible for the first solids origin and planetesimal’s formation. The developed models include the sequence of changes in the aggregate state of the main protoplanetary matter components; the location of the condensation-evaporation fronts depending on the thermodynamic parameters of the disk; the role of particle sublimation and coagulation in the two-phase medium with the account for particle size distribution; the relative contribution of radiation and turbulence to the heat and mass transport; and the mechanisms for the development of streaming and gravitational instabilities with allowance made for the shear stresses in boundary layers and polydispersed, suspended dust particles (see, e.g., Armitage, 2007 ; Marov & Kolesnichenko, 2013 ).

In the most comprehensive approach, a continuum model of heterogeneous disk medium should take into account the joint influence of MHD effects and turbulence on the dynamics and heat and mass transport processes in differentially rotating matter with allowance made for the inertial properties of the polydispersed admixture of solid particles, coagulation, radiation, and changing partitioning of elements between gaseous and condensed phases. Turbulence generated at the boundaries of the protoplanetary disk layers and caused by shear flows corresponds in character to the parameters of a boundary (Ekman) layer and significantly affects the disc dynamics including the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. It is important to emphasize that generation and maintenance of shear turbulence at various evolutionary stages of the disk involves a two-phase (gas-dust) medium with a differential angular velocity of rotation, different relative contents of dust particles, their size distribution, and coagulation processes. In general, a heterogenic mechanics approach should be applied to account for the emergence of coherent order against the background of random motions in large-scale turbulent structures. Also, the evolution of turbulence in the rotating accretion disk is supposed to be influenced by hydrodynamic helicity responsible for the cascade process of the inverse energy transfer from small to large eddies and negative viscosity appearance in the medium (Kolesnichenko & Marov, 2007 ).

Currently, a numerical solution of the bulk of problems with allowance made for the heterogeneity of a turbulent medium, radiation, diffusion, chemistry, and MHD effects is hardly possible and only limited approaches are feasible. Note that because terrestrial planets form close to the Sun, the focus in modeling is specially narrowed to the poorly resolvable inner disk regions within several astronomical units, where matter actively accretes onto the young star. This results in the dust/gas ratio, optical opacity, and the thermal regime changes, as well as the significant contribution of photochemical processes in transformation of the matter composition and transfer.

Particles Growth and Solid Bodies Formation

The key problem of the solar system origin is how the solar system bodies (original dust and condensates, as well as those produced in coagulation) progressively grew on scales ranging from nano- and micron-size particles to planetesimals and planets thus ranging over dozens orders of magnitude in mass. As mentioned above, time-dependent modeling with the different particle size distribution functions and limited lab experiments is the only tool to gain insight into the problem. Numerous attempts to reconstruct the process taking into account nebula thermal structure; evaporation fronts (EFs’) position for different components depending on radial temperature lapse rates in the disc’s midplane; particle growth by sticking limited by bouncing; fragmentation and radial drift due to nebula headwind drag of growing bodies influencing mass redistribution; etc., have been undertaken (see, e.g., Birnstiel, Dullemon, & Brauer, 2010 ; Dominik, Blum, Cuzzi, & Wurm, 2007 ; Estrada, Cuzzi, & Morgan, 2016 ; Nakagawa, Sekiya, & Hayashi, 1986 ; Ormel, Spaans, & Tielens, 2007 ; Wada, Tanaka, Suyama, Kimura, & Yamamoto, 2008 , 2009 ; Weidenschilling, 1980 ). Also, lab experiments with silicate and ice particles collisions in microgravity conditions revealed some important patterns of particles and particle aggregates formation. Some important constraints were deduced for particles bouncing and sticking, including translational energy and coefficients of restitution estimates depending on impact parameters (see, e.g., Beitz et al., 2011 ; Blum, 2004 ; Blum, Schrapler, Davidson, & Trigo-Rodriguez, 2006 ; Brisset et al., 2013 ; Chiang & Youdin, 2010 ; Güttler, Blum, Zsom, Ormel, & Dullemond, 2010 ; Hill, Heißelmann, Blum, & Fraser, 2015 ; Ida, Guilot, & Morbidelli, 2016 ; Lankowski, Teiser, & Blum, 2008 ; Schrapler, Blum, Seizinger, & Kley, 2012 ; Weidling, Güttler Blum, & Brauer, 2009 ; Weidling, Güttler, & Hium, 2011 ).

According to the modern views, the process started owing to the above-mentioned streaming/gravitational instability development in the dense subdisk formed out of the dust component settled down to the midplane of the gas-dust disk (Dorofeeva & Makalkin, 2004 ; Kolesnichenko & Marov, 2014 ; Makalkin & Dorofeeva, 1996 ; Marov et al., 2013 ; Youdin & Shu, 2002 ). This was followed by the primary porous dust clusters formation from which the first solid bodies of pebble-boulder size and eventually planetesimals of asteroid size have emerged. Some of these cm-size and larger pebbles were possibly assembled into porous clumps giving birth to comets; this approach accommodates the primordial rubble pile theory though other theory postulates that comets were made out of debris left over from the main planet-building phase, thus preserving remnants of the protosolar nebula matter. Nonetheless, collisional rubble pile theory better explains a rather small size of comet’s nucleus (~5–10 km) and even the bi-lobed shape of some of them, because of their gradual formation at low speed of leftover pebbles/grains after larger bodies have accumulated and gas in disc has disappeared, followed by gentle collisions owing to stirring the cometary orbits, specifically at the skirt of planetary system.

The sequence of solids growth and timescale of such a scenario is shown schematically in Figure 11 ;

Figure 11. Sequence of the of protosolar disk evolution. (a) Disk formation due to accretion gas and dust from the protosolar nebula and protosun emergence in the center. (b) Disk flatteniand dust particle sedimentation toward the midplane and dense dust subdisc formation; particle growth. (c) Subdisc fragmentation into dust clusters due to streaming and gravity instability development, cluster collisional interaction and solid growth, including first proto-planetesimal accumulation with gravity domain. (d) Planetesimals and planetary embryo formation, gas dissipation, and original solar system architecture setup evolving ultimately to the contemporary configuration. Time span: (a)–(b) 10 5 –10 6 yr; (c)–(d) 10 6 –10 7 yr.

the initial process is thought to last less than 10 5 –10 6 years of the overall ~10 8 years of planets formation. Note that the same short timescale is assumed for comets’ formation as well as for initial growth phase of the TNOs probably influencing the cometary-like bodies origin and evolution. The shear turbulence mechanism would promote ring-like contraction of dust in protoplanetary cloud into a thin disc ( h << r ) of non-regular shape widening toward the periphery. Solid bodies becoming planet embryos are formed from initially “loose” gas-dust (porous) clumps filling the main part of their sphere of attraction (Hill’s sphere) and slowly contracting due to internal gravitational forces. Let us recall that whereas the growth of particles during their collisions is hampered in chaotic turbulence, their coalescence and enlargement can occur inside turbulent eddies’ coherent structures promoting dust clusters set up in vortexes of baroclinic nature in a broad range of Stokes (St) number defined by the ratio of particle drag in an ambient gas to characteristic time of the system (defined as inverse Kepler frequency Ω ‎ −1 ) and dependent on size and density of a particle. Solid particles may be also concentrated in the disks with quite weak turbulence where denser than average matter structures (with large dust-to-gas ratio) would create a large population of aggregates and trigger streaming instability. This could be the case in outer zone of massive discs where rapid growth of aggregates to planetesimals was suggested (Krijt, Ormel, Dominik, & Tielens, 2016 ).

Generally, both instability mechanisms support the basic Safronov and Goldreich-Ward ideas about disc viscous accretion and subdisk matter gravitational collapse. As we have seen, in the modern models, the focus is also given to the competing processes of gas and dust photo-evaporation by the solar EUV-X-ray radiation and gas condensation/condesate growth, as well as to dust trapping, clustering, and coagulation including particles size distribution and stratified turbulence. These processes are accompanied by dust aggregates formation/restructuring through particles sticking, gas-dust coupling decrease, solids growth, and radial drift resulting ultimately in gravitationally bound planetesimals and planet embryos origin (Armitage, 2007 ; Birnstiel, Fang, & Johansen, 2016 ; Carrera, Gorti, Johansen, & Davies, 2017 ; Johansen et al., 2014 ; Marov & Kolesnichenko, 2013 ; Raettig, Klahr, & Lyra, 2015 ; Schaefer, Yang, & Johansen, 2017 ).

Although the basic scenario of ongoing particle growth is generally understood, many details of the processes involved at the different stages remain unclear. First, still uncertain are the details of physical mechanisms responsible for primary small dust particles growth before gravitational interactions of hundred meters-kilometer size bodies become effective. The process of particles’ mutual collisions is usually invoked as the factor that presumably gave rise to the aggregation of small particles to yield either dense particle clumps (Carrera, Johansen, & Davies, 2015 ) or pebble/boulder-size compact aggregates migrating in the protoplanetary disc and controlling planetesimals’ growth (Güttler, Blum, Zsom, Ormel, & Dullemond, 2010 ; Ida, Guilot, & Morbidelli, 2016 ; Krijt, Ormel, Dominik, & Tielens, 2016 ; Nakagawa, Nakazawa, & Hayashi, 1981 ; Zsom, Ormel, Güttler, Blum, & Dullemond, 2010 ; Ormel, Spaans, & Tielens, 2007 ). However, a probability of destruction rather than growth of forming bodies may be higher if collisional relative velocities and bouncing barriers for particle aggregates are significant, until gravitational attraction of planetesimals becomes dominant. Hence, an efficiency of sticking of dust particles into aggregates through collisions is a rather delicate mechanism, specifically if equal size particles of ~mm size are considered (Blum & Wurm, 2000 ). The formation of larger objects limited by bouncing is thought to be augmented by the streaming instability, gravitational collapse, collective particle behavior, and/or by static compression of fluffy dust aggregates (Kataoka, Tanaka, Okuzumi, & Wada, 2013 ; Ward, 2000 ; Yang, Johansen, & Carrera, 2016 ).

As a compromise ensuring higher efficiency of agglomerates creation we advocate for collisional integration of fluffy clusters made up by micron-sized particles rather than individual particles themselves, in support of the lab experiments mentioned above. It is further assumed in the developed models that clusters and their individual particles have fractal structure. Such an approach was thoroughly explored and validated theoretically (Kolesnichenko & Marov, 2013 ) involving concurrence of gravitational and brownian coagulation of dust monomers, aggregates growth, and porous bodies interaction/growth.

The bottom line of our numerical model is the agglomeration of small particles in the primary fluffy dust aggregates of low-bulk density and fractal nature of the latter, giving rise to their compression and formation of first dense bodies of progressively larger size. Unlike an approach used in the previous simulations (e.g., Dominik, Blum, Cuzzi, & Wurm, 2007 ; Wada, Tanaka, Suyama, Kimura, & Yamamoto, 2008 , 2009 ), the mode of particle on-head and offset collisions inside dust clusters was more strictly assessed in numerical N-body models (Marov & Rusol, 2011 , 2015a , 2015b ). Method of permeable particles and modified Newton model of collisions were utilized in terms of restitution coefficient Kr dependent on the distance between centers of particles and their relative velocity, taking into account internal structure of particles in fluffy clusters and complicated patterns of their interactions, specifically in the contact zone. This enabled us to examine collisional evolution of fluffy clusters beginning from nano-particles sticking together through electrostatic forces and growing up to compressed aggregates of larger size and different patterns. Example of 3D modeling of evolution of fractal dusty clusters with different numbers of populated submicron particles is shown in Figures 12 and 13 .

Figure 12. 3D-numerical modeling of submicron particles, collisional interaction, and growing within a grid in the primordial dusty cloud (density d = 1.5 × 10 ‒21 g/nm 3 . (a) An example of the original 3D structure of a selected grid. (b) Examples of agglomerate formation in the process of collisional evolution of particles in some grids.

Figure 13. 3D structure of fractal dusty clusters with different numbers of populated particles evolution (a–d) Red and blue colors denote positively and negatively charged particles of about 20-nm characteristic size in a quasi-neutral medium.

Figure 14 is a snapshot of a cross-section of randomly selected grids for fractal dusty clusters with different numbers of populated particles in Figure 13 .

Figure 14. Snapshot of a cross section of a randomly selected grid when getting through fractal dusty clusters with different numbers of populated particles (clusters a and b, respectively).

Of special interest is the evolution of fluffy dust clusters in mutual collisions that is critical for dusty agglomerates formation, as shown in Figure 15 .

Figure 15. Evolution of the structures of fluffy dust clusters; computer modeling of collisional interactions. (a) Fluffy clusters of characteristic size 50 nm, fractal dimension 2.55, and number of particles = 8,192. (b) Fluffy clusters of characteristic size 75 nm, fractal dimension 2.15, and number of particles = 3,072.

Examples of the respective numerical experiments carried out with clusters composed of various number of submicron particles of different fractal dimensions D β ‎ ranging from 2.025 (very fluffy structure) to 2.975 (well-packed structure) are shown in Figure 16 (Marov & Rusol, 2016 , in press ). The results of modeling of cluster interactions reveals how K r (restitution coefficient or its equivalent—collision recovery ratio) changes for clusters of different D β ‎ depending on the relative distance—between colliding i-j particles (0–1), and collision energy E ij /E int ( E ij is kinetic energy of collision; E int —the internal energy of molecular coupling preserving structure) ranging from 0.01 to 0.99. The strong dependence of K r on the parameters involved and are bound threshold were found, for example, for dense colliding clusters with relative velocity less than the critical value(corresponding to the energy of plastic deformation)bouncing occurs at K r > 0.87.

Figure 16. Restitution coefficient K r (collision recovery ratio) for clusters with various fractal dimensions D β as shown here. Note: r i , r j — radii of i and j model particles; r ij — distance between i and j colliding model particles; r col = r i +r j — collision distance; r i j r c o l — relative distance between i and j colliding particles; E i n t — cluster’s internal energy; E i j — kinetic energy of collision; E i j E i n t — relative collision energy.

The results are regarded as an important milestone toward in-depth study of “cluster-cluster coagulation” at the initial stage of the protoplanetary gas-dust disc evolution and results are addressed as precursors of primary objects growing. They are in accord with the conclusion (Wada et al., 2008 ) that a cluster with a larger number of particles is harder to destroy (easier to survive) in energetic collisions. Nonetheless, the problem is still far from being solved, especially if one keeps in mind that the global qualitative effect of disk gravity further increases collision/impact velocities and adds additional jitter to the orbital evolution of the primary bodies.

The next stage of growth of primordial seeds of bodies to planetesimals, with the allowance for mechanism of self-gravitation, seems more conceivable. At the first approximation, the mass distribution of particle agglomerates and proto-planetesimals obeys the known Smoluhovsky coagulation equation (a sort of the Boltzmann kinetic equation when dealing with coagulation process) with the account for gravity mutual attraction and fragmentation in non-gentle collisions. This interaction along with the dust sedimentation onto the formed bodies residing on intersected orbits (with chaotic velocities superimposed on quasi-circular orbital velocities) results in further growth of these protoplanetary embryos followed by the gradual scooping up of smaller bodies in due course of the swarm evolution. It is supposed, however, that there is a sort of barrier at around one meter size-range (see, e.g., Nakagawa, Hayashi, & Nakazawa, 1983 ; Weidenschilling, 1977 ; Youdin & Kenyon, 2012 ) because of the effects of body destruction and their inward drift toward the central star. The latter is caused by aerodynamic braking of these bodies in the remaining gas whose rotation velocity becomes lower than the Keplerian one. Primordial bodies beyond the meter-size barrier to proto-planetesimals growth through “coagulation” after more complete gas evacuation seems more feasible.

Obviously, competitive processes of destruction and particle trapping during radial matter exchange, along with particle concentration via streaming and/or gravitational instability, eventually results in bodies’ growth. Based on the results of modeling supported by lab simulation (Jansson, Johansen, Syed, & Blum, 2017 ) millimeter- to centimeter-size pebbles in a gravitationally bound collapsed cloud (due to, for example, disk streaming instability) would experience numerous collisions with different outcomes depending on their relative speeds and the cloud density, resulting eventually in a quite intense formation of planetesimals. As far as a planet’s accumulation is concerned, gravitationally focused mutual collisions of asteroids and planetary embryos are thought to be responsible for the emergence of progressively growing proto-planets possessing larger gravitational potentials (oligarchs), such an oligarchic growth being accompanied by catastrophic fragmentation of other bodies in a swarm of planetesimals (Chambers, 2008 ; Greenberg, Hartman, Chapman, & Wacker, 1978 ; Weidenschilling, 2010 ;Youdin & Kenyon, 2012 ). A system of satellites around a proto-planet could be explained invoking the same mechanism (Canup & Esposito, 1996 ).

A possibility of the formation of bodies from dust clusters in mass range from 10 20 to 10 22 g (corresponding to asteroids of tens to hundred kilometers in size) was shown in the numerical model (Marov et al., 2013 ). A mechanism of gravitational collapse of massive swarms of small particles and their pile-up without passing through the intermediate phases of growing was proposed to explain early formation of the ~100 km bodies, a source of very old iron meteorites, thereby circumventing the meter-size barrier problem (Cuzzi, Hogan, & Shariff, 2008 ; Johansen et al., 2007 ; Morbidelli, Bottke, Nesvorny, & Levison, 2009 ). Similarly, a prompt planetesimal’s formation in regions beyond the snow line due to streaming instability-induced gravity collapse of radially drifting millimeter-size dust particles to ensure material deposition for the giant planet cores was suggested (Armitage, Eisner, & Simon, 2016 ). Anyway, whatever particular solution of the problem, further growth occurs through interaction of planetesimals with solid and gaseous components under gravity domain and sporadic mutual collisions (Chambers, 2010 ).

Note that in the numerical experiments, some constraints were placed on the value of angular momentum of the porous (low density) gas-dust clusters (pre-planetesimals) of about Hill sphere in size and their moving before collision along heliocentric orbits. The model aimed to assist dynamical formation of planetary/satellite bodies with application to trans-Neptunian system. Arguments were drawn for consistency of the properties of wide binaries in the Kuiper Belt with a primordial origin during gravitational collapse (Nesvorny, Youdin, & Richardson, 2010 ). As the outcome, origin of the Earth-Moon system was attempted to explain in terms of the compression of a low-density cluster of 0.1 mass of the contemporary Earth formed from the collision of two original clusters on the close heliocentric orbits, which allowed the system to acquire the necessary angular momentum (Ipatov, 2014 ).

As it was said above, significant role at the final stage of planet’s growth could play migration and resonances in the forming planetary system. The commonly adopted scenario of the solar system origin involving planetesimals growing to planet embryos together with asteroid-size and comet-like bodies as remnants of planets is illustrated in Figure 17 .

Figure 17. Artist’s concept of a planetary system formation, as seen from the outer edge of the gas-dust disc around an emerged central protostar. Planetesimals growing to planet embryos, together with asteroid-size and cometlike bodies as remnants of planets’ formation, are seen. The picture resembles the commonly adopted scenario of the solar system origins.

It reflects our current general understanding of how original bodies and then planets formed though we are still far from resolving this mysterious subject. Some fundamental bottlenecks in planets formation challenging future studies were most recently summarized in Morbidelli and Raymond ( 2016 ).

Accretion Processes
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The Orbital Architecture of Exoplanetary Systems
Detection and Characterization Methods of Exoplanets
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Massive new NASA exoplanet catalog unveils 126 extreme and exotic worlds

"Are we unusual? The jury is still out on that one, but our new mass catalog represents a major step toward answering that question."

Lots of different exoplanet illustrations neatly organized in a grid pattern. They're all the same size, but different colors.

A new catalog of 126 worlds beyond the solar system contains a cornucopia of newly discovered planets — some have extreme and exotic natures, but others could potentially support life as we know it.

The catalog's mix of planets is further evidence of the wide and wild variety of worlds beyond our cosmic backyard; it even shows that our solar system is perhaps a little boring. Yet, despite these planets being so different than Earth and its neighbors, maybe they can still help us better understand why our planetary system looks the way it does, thus uncovering our place in the wider cosmos.

The catalog of extrasolar planets, or " exoplanets ," was created using data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in collaboration with the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii .

"With this information, we can begin to answer questions about where our solar system fits into the grand tapestry of other planetary systems," Stephen Kane, TESS-Keck Survey Principal Investigator and an astrophysicist at the University of California, Riverside, said in a statement .

Related: NASA space telescope finds Earth-size exoplanet that's 'not a bad place' to hunt for life

The new TESS-Keck Survey of 126 exoplanets really stands apart from previous exoplanet surveys because it contains complex data about the majority of planets included.

"Relatively few of the previously known exoplanets have a measurement of both the mass and the radius," Kane added. "The combination of these measurements tells us what the planets could be made of and how they formed."

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A larger version of the image at the top, showing tons of planet illustrations in a grid-like pattern.

"Seeing red" to measure exoplanet masses

The catalog was built over the course of three years as the team used 13,000 measurements of tiny "wobbles" that planets cause as they orbit their stars and exert a tiny gravitational tug on them. This tug causes a star to move slightly away, then slightly toward, Earth.

When stars are pulled slightly away, this stretches the wavelengths of light they emit, moving them toward the "red end" of the electromagnetic spectrum. When stars move toward Earth, the wavelength of the light they omit is slightly compressed, making it "bluer."

The exploitation of redshift and blueshift in this way by astronomers is called the "radial velocity method. " Because the strength of the gravitational pull a planet exerts on a star is proportional to its mass, it is a good way of determining mass. Thus, the radial velocity method allowed Kane and team to determine the mass of 120 confirmed exoplanets and six exoplanet candidates.

"These radial velocity measurements let astronomers detect and learn the properties of these exoplanetary systems," Ian Crossfield, University of Kansas astrophysicist and catalog co-author, said. "When we see a star wobbling regularly back and forth, we can infer the presence of an orbiting planet and measure the planet’s mass." Excitingly, some of the 126 exoplanets in the TESS-Keck Survey could deepen astronomers' understanding of how an array of diverse planets form and evolve.

A strange super-Earth, a sub-Saturn and more!

Two of the new planets featured in the TESS-Keck Survey orbit a sun-like star called TOI-1386, which is located around 479 light-years away.

One of these exoplanets has a mass and width that put it somewhere between the solar system gas giant Saturn and the smaller, less massive ice giant Neptune . That makes this planet, designated TOI-1386 b, a " sub-Saturn " planet and a fascinating target for planetary scientists.

"There is an ongoing debate about whether sub-Saturn planets are truly rare, or if we are just bad at finding planets like these," discoverer and UCR graduate student Michelle Hill said in the statement. "So, this planet, TOI-1386 b, is an important addition to this demographic of planets."

At a distance from its parent star, equivalent to around 17% of the distance between Earth and the sun, TOI-1386 b takes just 26 Earth days to complete an orbit.

Its newly discovered closest neighbor is a bit more leisurely. TOI-1386 c is a puffy gas giant that is about as wide as Jupiter , but with only 30% of the mass of the largest planet in the solar system. It sits around 70% of the distance between Earth and the sun from its parent star, and has a year that lasts about 228 Earth days.

An orange and yellow striped orb. It looks like a very bright gumball.

Another fascinating world among this batch of exoplanets is around half the size of Neptune, with over ten times the mass of Earth, orbits TOI-1437 (also known as HD 154840), and is located some 337,000 light-years away.

Designated TOI-1437 b, the sub-Neptunian planet orbits its star at around 14% of the distance between Earth and the sun, and has a year lasting around 19 Earth days. Discovered by TESS via the tiny dip in the light it causes as it crosses the face of its star , TOI-1437 b is one of the few sub-Neptunes known to transit its star that has a well-defined mass and radius.

TOI-1437 b also highlights a curious absence in our cosmic backyard.

"Planets smaller than Neptune but larger than Earth are the most prevalent worlds in our galaxy, yet they are absent from our own solar system," discoverer and UCR graduate student Daria Pidhorodetska said in the statement. "Each time a new one is discovered, we are reminded of how diverse our universe is and that our existence in the cosmos may be more unique than we can understand."

An illustration of space, showing a bright yellow star getting orbited by two planets. One is blue and far away, and the other is orange, partly shadowed, and closer.

Another interesting exoplanet detailed for the first time in this new catalog is TOI-1798 c, a super-Earth that orbits an orange dwarf star so closely its year lasts just about 12 Earth hours.

"One year on this planet lasts less than half a day on Earth," study lead author Alex Polanski, a University of Kansas physics and astronomy graduate student, said in the statement. "Because of their proximity to their host stars, planets like this one are also ultra hot — receiving more than 3,000 times the radiation that Earth receives from the sun."

This makes the planetary system TOI-1798, which also hosts a sub-Neptune planet that completes an orbit in around eight days, one of only a few star systems known to have an inner super-Earth planet with an ultra-short period (USP) orbit.

"While the majority of planets we know about today orbit their star faster than Mercury orbits the sun, USPs take this to the extreme," Pidhorodetska added. "TOI-1798 c orbits its star so quickly that one year on this planet lasts less than half a day on Earth. Because of their proximity to their host star, USPs are also ultra hot — receiving more than 3,000 times the radiation that Earth receives from the sun. Existing in this extreme environment means that this planet has likely lost any atmosphere that it initially formed."

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The release of the TESS-Keck Survey's Mass Catalog means that astronomers now have a way of exploring in depth the work of TESS, which launched in April 2018, and gauging how it has changed our understanding of exoplanets.

With thousands of planets from the TESS mission alone still yet to be confirmed, releases of exoplanet catalogs like this one are set to become more common.

"Are we unusual? The jury is still out on that one, but our new mass catalog represents a major step toward answering that question," Kane said.

The exoplanets are described in the Thursday (May 23) edition of The Astrophysical Journal Supplement.

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Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University. Follow him on Twitter @sciencef1rst.

NASA space telescope finds Earth-size exoplanet that's 'not a bad place' to hunt for life

Stars give tiny planets a gravitational 'squeeze' to strip away their atmospheres

Pakistani cubesat snaps images of the moon during China's lunar far side mission (photos)

Science Evidence for 'Planet Nine' lurking on the fringes of the Solar System is building. So why can't astronomers spot it?

A huge unknown lurks in the far reaches of our Solar System — something massive enough to pull distant space rocks into extraordinarily long, thin loops around the Sun.

At least, this is what US astronomer Michael Brown believes.

In 2016, he and a colleague at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) proposed something almost unfathomable: a huge planet, up to 10 times heftier than Earth, way out on the edge of our Solar System.

They called it "Planet Nine".

Now, they have published a study , yet to be peer-reviewed, that simulated the movements of objects on the Solar System's fringes , and found that the chance of a Planet-Nine-type object not existing was just one in a million.

"I don't see how we can have a Solar System without Planet Nine," Professor Brown says.

"It just has to be out there."

The only problem? Scientists still can not find it.

How to find a planet

It has been almost 200 years since astronomers last discovered a planet in our Solar System.

The honour of predicting it goes to mid-19th-century astronomers Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams.

They noticed that Uranus (which was only discovered about 60 years earlier) had irregularities in its orbit that could only be explained by the presence of another, more distant planet.

Le Verrier in Paris and Adams in Cambridge calculated coordinates for this hypothetical planet, and when German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle and his student pointed a telescope to that part of the sky in 1846, there it was: Neptune, the Solar System's eighth planet.

"They found it in the first night they were looking," Professor Brown says.

"[The observation] didn't take eight years, it took one night! I'm very jealous."

While Planet Nine might be found the same way, the most tantalising hints it exists come not from ice giants like Uranus, but the motion of dwarf planets and asteroids that typically orbit much further out in our Solar System.

They are known as trans-Neptunian objects or TNOs.

More than 3,000 of these objects — including dwarf planet Pluto — have been found so far, although most have not yet been named or thoroughly investigated.

We do know that none have the right characteristics to be that mysterious ninth planet — not even Eris, the largest known trans-Neptunian object.

Coloured circles showing the path of space objects in the Solar System, with one labelled 'Planet 9's orbit'

What some trans-Neptunian objects do have, though, are extreme orbits. Instead of trundling around the Sun in something resembling a circle, they are slingshotted out towards interstellar space before making the journey back in towards Neptune.

In 2003, researchers including Professor Brown discovered 90377 Sedna , a trans-Neptunian dwarf planet which had an incredibly long, thin orbit.

Other trans-Neptunian objects began to be discovered by other teams. Sedna's odd orbit was not a one-off.

It is these extreme trans-Neptunian journeys that have astronomers stumped. Based on what scientists currently understand about the Solar System and the laws of physics, there is no reasonable explanation yet for why they are out there.

And it was the 2016 study by Professor Brown and his colleague Konstantin Batygin that rocketed a potential explanation — Planet Nine — into the mainstream.

The evidence for Planet Nine

At the core of the study were six weirdly orbiting extreme trans-Neptunian objects, including Sedna.

A gif zooming out showing the vast distance of six objects orbits and potential orbit of planet nine

The pair calculated a 99.993 per cent probability that the objects' peculiar paths were not due to chance.

They suggested the reason might be a planet that is five to 10 times the mass of Earth that lies around 20 times the distance of Neptune to the Sun, and takes 10,000 years to complete a single orbit.

Some astronomers were immediately excited.

Brad Tucker, an astronomer at the Australian National University , quickly set up a citizen science project to try and capture the elusive planet using data from the SkyMapper telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory.

"We found lots of objects, but nothing conclusive. We kind of expected that, but we wanted to give it a good look," he says.

Other groups around the world have looked since.

"No-one has found really anything that could possibly be Planet Nine," Dr Tucker says.

With no Planet Nine forthcoming, the recent arXiv preprint study by Professor Brown, Dr Batygin and two other colleagues went down a different route.

They looked at 17 trans-Neptunian objects with less extreme orbits that did not take them as far out in the Solar System.

"All the things in the outer part of the Solar System are also being pushed inward," Professor Brown says.

The team ran multiple simulations, reporting that one-in-a-million chance that something like Planet Nine is not out there.

But even Professor Brown is well aware this is not enough.

"Have we found Planet Nine? No. If we had found Planet Nine it would not be on arXiv for people to randomly find. Everybody would know already," he says.

"Until somebody points a telescope at it and says 'It's that dot in the sky right there', you haven't found it."

While indirect evidence for Planet Nine has strengthened over the past eight years, there are also now fewer places it could be hiding.

Another study published earlier this year by Professor Brown and his colleagues noted that 78 per cent of the sky in which Planet Nine could potentially be has already been searched.

So, either Planet Nine is hiding in some hard-to-find location in that final 22 per cent of sky, or something else is causing these strange trans-Neptunian object orbital results.

An illustration that shows planet nine is just smaller than neptune and uranus

Dr Tucker says many astronomers are sceptical Planet Nine exists.

"There's still plenty of people who doubt it," he says.

But eight years after Professor Brown and Dr Batygin's first Planet Nine study, "I think there is more acceptance that there's something going on".

Why not everyone agrees

For Katherine Brown, a theoretical physicist at Hamilton College in the US, extraordinary planets require extraordinary evidence.

"The idea that there could be, in this day and age, an undiscovered planet lurking in the outer reaches of the Solar System is fairly remarkable," she says.

"Remarkable ideas are bound to engender some level of controversy until they are proved or disproved."

Some researchers suggested that because the six trans-Neptunian objects in the 2016 study were picked from a variety of sky surveys, this may have biased the analysis . Even with more extreme trans-Neptunian objects discovered and reanalysed, some have remained unconvinced .

Other scientists have suggest that a small black hole might be behind the trans-Neptunian objects' orbits.

A study Hamilton College's Professor Brown published last year in The Astronomical Journal might contain the wildest theory of all — that instead of a planet out there, our entire understanding of gravity is wrong.

Orbits of objects on the edge of our Solar System are not the only cosmic phenomenon scientists can not yet explain.

To keep from falling apart, galaxies require more mass than what scientists can see.

Most astrophysicists think that "dark matter" is the missing mass here, but a small minority, including Katherine Brown, believe that the answer could lie in an as-yet-undiscovered aspect of gravity.

According to her, the hypothesis, called "modified Newtonian dynamics" or MOND, can also explain the weird orbits of the six trans-Neptunian objects Michael Brown analysed in his 2016 Planet Nine study.

"We are at the exciting juncture where either a new planet might be discovered in the outer Solar System, or a new law of gravity," she says.

"Even if the trans-Neptunian object's orbital alignment turns out to be a spurious artefact, we will learn something about gravity."

New eyes on the sky

Caltech's Michael Brown appreciates why other scientists are trying to understand what could be behind the strange orbits.

"Until it's found, the majority will be sceptical I think," he says.

Those that are convinced Planet Nine is out there are waiting for the new Vera Rubin Observatory to come online in Chile early next year.

The telescope has an 8.4-metre mirror, which makes it the largest camera ever built for astronomy.

"It's going to be doing something called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which is a massive survey — taking images of the sky every single night," Swinburne University of Technology astrophysicist Sara Webb says.

"This type of survey is going to allow us to try and put a limit for how bright we think Planet Nine might be."

The survey will map the sky in the Southern Hemisphere for 10 years, and because it can map so much of the sky, it can track when objects change or move.

Being so much more powerful than those that came before it, it will be able to peer deeper into the edges of the Solar System, and pick up the tiny amount of sunlight reflected from Planet Nine's surface.

If that does not work, Professor Michael Brown suggests ditching optical telescopes all together.

"If Vera Rubin doesn't find it by reflected sunlight, the next best thing is to find it not as reflected sunlight, but by using radio telescopes," he says.

"They're not designed to look at little planets; they're designed to look at the whole sky at once. It'll take a while for the telescopes to be able to see that this planet has moved from one place to the other, so it'll be a couple of years of those surveys before we know it's there.

"But it's going to be very difficult to hide from those radio telescopes."

The Caltech astronomer wants nothing more than to be able to stop searching for this planet. Eight years is a long time to be looking for something that might not exist.

"It feels like an eternity," he says.

But he is not ready to give up yet. For him, finding the planet would allow the truly fun part to begin.

"We have spent centuries studying the giant planets that we have. Imagine we get a new one all of a sudden. All the things we've done for studying the giant planets, we get to do all over again for the first time," he says.

"We will study it with every telescope you can imagine — on the Earth and off the Earth. I am certain that we will very quickly work on trying to get a spacecraft out there.

"It's going to be extremely exciting — as soon as we find it."

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The huge solar storm is keeping power grid and satellite operators on edge

Geoff Brumfiel

Willem Marx

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of solar flares early Saturday afternoon. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there have been measurable effects and impacts from the geomagnetic storm. Solar Dynamics Observatory hide caption

Planet Earth is getting rocked by the biggest solar storm in decades – and the potential effects have those people in charge of power grids, communications systems and satellites on edge.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there have been measurable effects and impacts from the geomagnetic storm that has been visible as aurora across vast swathes of the Northern Hemisphere. So far though, NOAA has seen no reports of major damage.

The Picture Show

Photos: see the northern lights from rare, solar storm.

There has been some degradation and loss to communication systems that rely on high-frequency radio waves, NOAA told NPR, as well as some preliminary indications of irregularities in power systems.

"Simply put, the power grid operators have been busy since yesterday working to keep proper, regulated current flowing without disruption," said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator for the Boulder, Co.-based Space Weather Prediction Center at NOAA.

NOAA Issues First Severe Geomagnetic Storm Watch Since 2005

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"Satellite operators are also busy monitoring spacecraft health due to the S1-S2 storm taking place along with the severe-extreme geomagnetic storm that continues even now," Dahl added, saying some GPS systems have struggled to lock locations and offered incorrect positions.

NOAA's GOES-16 satellite captured a flare erupting occurred around 2 p.m. EDT on May 9, 2024.

As NOAA had warned late Friday, the Earth has been experiencing a G5, or "Extreme," geomagnetic storm . It's the first G5 storm to hit the planet since 2003, when a similar event temporarily knocked out power in part of Sweden and damaged electrical transformers in South Africa.

The NOAA center predicted that this current storm could induce auroras visible as far south as Northern California and Alabama.

Extreme (G5) geomagnetic conditions have been observed! pic.twitter.com/qLsC8GbWus — NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (@NWSSWPC) May 10, 2024

Around the world on social media, posters put up photos of bright auroras visible in Russia , Scandinavia , the United Kingdom and continental Europe . Some reported seeing the aurora as far south as Mallorca, Spain .

The source of the solar storm is a cluster of sunspots on the sun's surface that is 17 times the diameter of the Earth. The spots are filled with tangled magnetic fields that can act as slingshots, throwing huge quantities of charged particles towards our planet. These events, known as coronal mass ejections, become more common during the peak of the Sun's 11-year solar cycle.

A powerful solar storm is bringing northern lights to unusual places

Usually, they miss the Earth, but this time, NOAA says several have headed directly toward our planet, and the agency predicted that several waves of flares will continue to slam into the Earth over the next few days.

While the storm has proven to be large, predicting the effects from such incidents can be difficult, Dahl said.

Shocking problems

The most disruptive solar storm ever recorded came in 1859. Known as the "Carrington Event," it generated shimmering auroras that were visible as far south as Mexico and Hawaii. It also fried telegraph systems throughout Europe and North America.

Stronger activity on the sun could bring more displays of the northern lights in 2024

While this geomagnetic storm will not be as strong, the world has grown more reliant on electronics and electrical systems. Depending on the orientation of the storm's magnetic field, it could induce unexpected electrical currents in long-distance power lines — those currents could cause safety systems to flip, triggering temporary power outages in some areas.

my cat just experienced the aurora borealis, one of the world's most radiant natural phenomena... and she doesn't care pic.twitter.com/Ee74FpWHFm — PJ (@kickthepj) May 10, 2024

The storm is also likely to disrupt the ionosphere, a section of Earth's atmosphere filled with charged particles. Some long-distance radio transmissions use the ionosphere to "bounce" signals around the globe, and those signals will likely be disrupted. The particles may also refract and otherwise scramble signals from the global positioning system, according to Rob Steenburgh, a space scientist with NOAA. Those effects can linger for a few days after the storm.

Like Dahl, Steenburgh said it's unclear just how bad the disruptions will be. While we are more dependent than ever on GPS, there are also more satellites in orbit. Moreover, the anomalies from the storm are constantly shifting through the ionosphere like ripples in a pool. "Outages, with any luck, should not be prolonged," Steenburgh said.

What Causes The Northern Lights? Scientists Finally Know For Sure

The radiation from the storm could have other undesirable effects. At high altitudes, it could damage satellites, while at low altitudes, it's likely to increase atmospheric drag, causing some satellites to sink toward the Earth.

The changes to orbits wreak havoc, warns Tuija Pulkkinen, chair of the department of climate and space sciences at the University of Michigan. Since the last solar maximum, companies such as SpaceX have launched thousands of satellites into low Earth orbit. Those satellites will now see their orbits unexpectedly changed.

"There's a lot of companies that haven't seen these kind of space weather effects before," she says.

The International Space Station lies within Earth's magnetosphere, so its astronauts should be mostly protected, Steenburgh says.

In a statement, NASA said that astronauts would not take additional measures to protect themselves. "NASA completed a thorough analysis of recent space weather activity and determined it posed no risk to the crew aboard the International Space Station and no additional precautionary measures are needed," the agency said late Friday.

People visit St Mary's lighthouse in Whitley Bay to see the aurora borealis on Friday in Whitley Bay, England. Ian Forsyth/Getty Images hide caption

People visit St Mary's lighthouse in Whitley Bay to see the aurora borealis on Friday in Whitley Bay, England.

While this storm will undoubtedly keep satellite operators and utilities busy over the next few days, individuals don't really need to do much to get ready.

"As far as what the general public should be doing, hopefully they're not having to do anything," Dahl said. "Weather permitting, they may be visible again tonight." He advised that the largest problem could be a brief blackout, so keeping some flashlights and a radio handy might prove helpful.

I took these photos near Ranfurly in Central Otago, New Zealand. Anyone can use them please spread far and wide. :-) https://t.co/NUWpLiqY2S — Dr Andrew Dickson reform/ACC (@AndrewDickson13) May 10, 2024

And don't forget to go outside and look up, adds Steenburgh. This event's aurora is visible much further south than usual.

A faint aurora can be detected by a modern cell phone camera, he adds, so even if you can't see it with your eyes, try taking a photo of the sky.

The aurora "is really the gift from space weather," he says.

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International planet hunters unveil massive catalog of strange worlds

NASA TESS-Keck Survey details mass, density of 126 planets

While thousands of planets have been discovered around other stars, relatively little is known about them. A NASA catalog featuring 126 exotic, newly discovered worlds includes detailed measurements that allow for comparisons with our own solar system.

The catalog details a fascinating mix of planet types beyond our solar system, from rare worlds with extreme environments to ones that could possibly support life.

The planets were analyzed by a large, international team of scientists using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in collaboration with the W.M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawai’i. They are described in today’s edition of The Astrophysical Journal Supplement.

“Relatively few of the previously known exoplanets have a measurement of both the mass and the radius. The combination of these measurements tell us what the planets could be made of and how they formed,” said Stephen Kane, UC Riverside astrophysicist and principal investigator of the TESS-Keck Survey.

“With this information, we can begin to answer questions about where our solar system fits in to the grand tapestry of other planetary systems,” Kane said.

The research team spent three years developing the catalog. They analyzed more than 13,000 radial velocity (RV) measurements to calculate the masses of 120 confirmed planets, plus six candidate planets, spread out over the northern sky.

Though the planets themselves aren’t visible, they do have a visible effect. As they orbit, the planets tug on their host stars, causing them to “wobble.” When the star moves toward a telescope, its visible light turns slightly bluer; when it moves away from us, the light shifts slightly redder.

This is much like how sound behaves. Due to the Doppler effect, a fire truck’s siren gets higher-pitched as it travels closer and sounds lower-pitched as it drives farther away.

“These RV measurements let astronomers detect and learn the properties of these exoplanetary systems. When we see a star wobbling regularly back and forth, we can infer the presence of an orbiting planet and measure the planet’s mass,” said Ian Crossfield, University of Kansas astrophysicist and catalog co-author.

Several planets in the TESS-Keck Survey stand out as touchstones for deepening astronomers’ understanding of the diverse ways planets form and evolve.

A related survey paper authored by UCR graduate student Michelle Hill announces the discovery of two new planets orbiting a star like our sun. The first is a “sub-Saturn” planet with a mass and radius that are between those of Neptune and Saturn.

“There is ongoing debate about whether sub-Saturn planets are truly rare, or if we are just bad at finding planets like these,” Hill said. “So, this planet, TOI-1386 b, is an important addition to this demographic of planets.”

TOI-1386 b only takes 26 days to orbit its star. Meanwhile its neighbor, a planet with a mass close to that of Saturn, takes 227-days to orbit the same star.

Another survey paper authored by UCR graduate student Daria Pidhorodetska describes a planet about half the size of Neptune that takes a mere 19 days to orbit its star, which is much like our Sun.

“Planets smaller than Neptune but larger than Earth are the most prevalent worlds in our galaxy, yet they are absent from our own Solar System. Each time a new one is discovered, we are reminded of how diverse our Universe is, and that our existence in the cosmos may be more unique than we can understand,” Pidhorodetska said.

There are a lot of stars that are not similar to our sun. If scientists want to make apt comparisons between our world and others, they need to find stars of a similar age, size, and mass. “Then we can do apples-to-apples comparisons,” Kane said. “That’s the exciting part of the papers produced by Michelle and Daria, because they allow for this.”

Planets with even more extreme, ultra-short orbits around stars unlike our sun are also detailed in the catalog. One is so close to its orange dwarf star it completes orbit in less than 12 hours.

“TOI-1798 c orbits its star so quickly that one year on this planet lasts less than half a day on Earth. Because of their proximity to their host stars, planets like this one are also ultra hot — receiving more than 3,000 times the radiation that Earth receives from the sun,” said Alex Polanski, University of Kansas physics and astronomy graduate student and lead author of the catalog paper.

“Existing in this extreme environment means that this planet has likely lost any atmosphere that it initially formed,” Polanski said.

Ultimately, this new catalog represents a major contribution both to NASA’s TESS mission, and toward answering the question of whether other planets are capable of hosting life as we know it.

“Are we unusual? The jury is still out on that one, but our new mass catalog represents a major step toward answering that question,” Kane said.

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Discovery Alert: Mini-Neptune in Double Star System is a Planetary Puzzle

The Discovery

A planet that could resemble a smaller version of our own Neptune orbits one of two Sun-like stars that also orbit each other. The planet dwells in the “habitable zone,” with a potentially moderate temperature, and poses a challenge to prevailing ideas of planet formation.

Astronomers once imagined that our solar system – with its middle-aged, quiet Sun hosting small, rocky planets in closer orbits and gas giants farther out – might be typical, even run-of-the-mill. But so far, in an era of increasingly powerful planet-hunting technology, it’s turning out to be anything but. Other planetary systems can look very different, if not downright weird (or are we the weird ones?). A system called TOI 4633 seems truly strange: a mysterious type of planet known as a “mini-Neptune” traces an Earth-like, 272-day orbit around one of two stars locked in their own orbital embrace. But the stellar orbits, and those of the mini-Neptune and a possible sibling planet, are raising questions about how planetary systems form – and whether such arrangements can remain stable over time.

Among the thousands of exoplanets – planets beyond our solar system – confirmed in our galaxy so far, most were detected using the “transit” method: measuring the tiny dip in starlight as a planet crosses the face of its star. And most of these transit detections involve planets with short orbits, their “years” – once around the star – lasting a few days or weeks.

So the detection of planet TOI 4633 c was a welcome departure. That isn’t only because its 272-day orbit places it in fairly exclusive company: 175 transiting planets found so far with years longer than 100 days, and only 40 over 250 days. The planet, detected using TESS (the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), also orbits in the habitable zone, the distance from a star that could allow liquid water to form on a planetary surface. For planet c, of course, that’s almost certainly not the case; it most likely has a large, dense atmosphere, perhaps similar to Neptune’s, that would rule out surface water. A moon might be one way around this. The longer a planet’s orbital period, the more likely it is to host a satellite, so it isn’t difficult to imagine a potentially habitable moon, à la the fictional Pandora. The brightness of this system could make it a likely target in the continuing search for such “exomoons.”

The list of puzzling properties for this system continues. Measurements using a second detection method revealed a possible sibling planet with a 34-day orbit. This one does not, from Earth’s perspective, cross the face of its star, so its potential presence was revealed by “radial velocity.” The light coming from a star shifts slightly to and fro as the gravity of an orbiting planet tugs it one way, then another; follow-up investigations will be needed to confirm that the sibling planet, suggested by radial velocity measurements, is really there.

Further investigation of this system also could prove important for understanding binary star systems, or pairs of stars that orbit each other. A companion star in this case orbits the primary star in just 230 years, allowing them to approach each other closely by interstellar standards. The stars’ oval-shaped mutual orbit and close approach, along with a transiting planet on a long orbit around one of the stars, make this a standout system – one that will allow scientists to test their ideas about how planetary systems form and whether such unusual orbital configurations can manage to keep themselves stable over billions of years.

Planet TOI 4633 c was discovered by 15 “citizen scientists” who pored over TESS data as part of the Planet Hunters TESS citizen science project. Some 40,000 such volunteers regularly inspect “light curves” – lines that trace the amount of light coming from a star and that dip downward during a planet crossing, then curve back up when the crossing is finished. Scientists investigating the system also got an assist from more than a century ago: archival data that was part of the Washington Double Star Catalog, maintained by the U.S. Naval Observatory, and was gathered between 1905 and 2011.

The Discoverers

An international team led by astrophysicist Nora L. Eisner of the Flatiron Institute in New York published the study, “Planet Hunters TESS. V. A Planetary System Around a Binary Star, Including a Mini-Neptune in the Habitable Zone,” in The Astronomical Journal on April 30, 2024.

NASA's citizen science projects are collaborations between scientists and interested members of the public. Through these collaborations, volunteers (known as citizen scientists) have helped make thousands of important scientific discoveries. Get involved with a project here .

Related Terms

Binary Stars
Exoplanet Science
Neptune-Like Exoplanets
TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)

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Essay on Solar System for School Students

Inner Planets (Terrestrial Planets):

Outer Planets (Gas Giants)

Deepika Joshi

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