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Solar System

What And Where Is The Solar System?, Solar System Inventory, The Solar Nebula Hypothesis, The Angular Momentum Problem



The solar system comprises the Sun, nine major planets, some 100,0000 asteroids larger than 0.6 mi (1 km) in diameter, and perhaps 1 trillion cometary nuclei. While the major planets lie within 40 astronomical units (AU) of the Sun, the outermost boundary of the solar system stretches to 1 million AU, one third the way to the nearest star. It is believed that the solar system was formed through the collapse of a spinning cloud of interstellar gas and dust.




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Science EncyclopediaScience & Philosophy: Adam Smith Biography to Spectroscopic binary