This essay will evaluate The Sun and our Solar System in depth.

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SOLAR SYSTEM

This essay will evaluate The Sun and our Solar System in depth.  As the sun rushes through space at a speed of 150 miles (240 kilometres) per second, it takes many smaller bodies along with it. The sun and its smaller companions together are known as the solar system. Together, these bodies are making a revolution around the Milky Way that takes 225 million years. These other members of the solar system range in size from the giant planet Jupiter to microscopic particles called micrometeorites and even smaller particles--atoms and molecules of the interplanetary gas. Earth is one of the largest bodies of the solar system, although it is quite small when compared with the sun or Jupiter.  

   Astronomers do not know exactly how far out the solar system extends. When it is at its farthest point from the sun, some 41/2 billion miles (7.2 billion kilometres)--a point called the aphelion--Pluto is the most distant known planet. Many comets, however, have orbits that take them even farther out, up to several hundred times the distance of Pluto. Even at that distance the sun's gravitational force can pull the comet back. Some hundred billion comets form a tenuous halo in the outer parts of the solar system. Each is like a giant snowball, 1,000 to 10,000 feet (300 to 3,000 meters) in diameter.

   

THE SOLAR SYSTEM IN SPACE

The solar system centres on the sun, one of a huge group of stars swirling around in a huge pinwheel-shaped mass called the Milky Way galaxy. There are on the order of 100 billion stars in the galaxy. Astronomical distances are so huge that astronomers often use the light-year as the unit of distance. One light-year is equal to the distance light travels in a year, or 5,880,000,000,000 miles (9,463,000,000,000 kilometres).  

   The galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across. The solar system's nearest neighbour in the galaxy is the triple star system Alpha and Proxima Centauri, which are 4.3 light-years away from our sun. Outside the Milky Way there are billions more galaxies stretching out through space. Evidence suggests that there are also at least two planets orbiting a pulsar outside the solar system. These planets are estimated to be about 1,300 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Virgo.  

   Astronomers cannot see to the end of the universe, which is the vast space that contains the galaxies and all other matter and energy that anyone knows to exist. However, galaxies and other objects have been detected that are thought to be between 5 billion and 15 billion light-years away from the sun. Compared with such distances, our solar system occupies a very tiny amount of space.  

PARTS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Even though the solar system is tiny compared with the distances to galaxies or even to nearby stars, it is enormous when compared with distances on Earth. It is also diverse, with conditions ranging from the hot, gaseous sun to the cold darkness of Pluto.  

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The Sun

The sun is the central member of the solar system. Its gravitational force holds the other members in orbit and governs their motions. It far outweighs all other components of the solar system combined. In fact, the sun contains more than 99 percent of the mass of the entire solar system.  

   The sun is, however, only an average-sized star. If it were as far away from Earth as most stars are, it would look no larger or brighter than its neighbours. But since it is by far the nearest star and the only star whose ...

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