Did you know that the largest moon in our Solar System orbits the largest planet in our Solar System? Ganymede, a moon orbiting Jupiter wins the prize as the largest moon in our Solar System.
Ganymede, The Largest Moon In Our Solar System
The Solar System
Where in the Solar System is the Asteroid Belt?
I’ve been thinking about asteroids this week. Did you know that on October 12, 2010 an asteroid called 2010 TD54 passed within 28,000 miles of the Earth? That’s pretty close. In fact, it passed within the orbit of the moon and close to the orbit of some of our own satellites.
Comet Origins: Blame the Solar Nebula!
Scientists generally agree today that comets were formed at the same time that our solar system was formed – about 4.6 billion years ago. At that time, the solar system was an enormous spinning disk of dust and gas called the Solar Nebula. Over time, gravitational attraction caused the dust and gas in the center to form our Sun and other areas consolidated into clumps of matter called planetesimals. Planetesimals were about one kilometer across.
Our Solar System is in a Boring Part of the Milky Way Galaxy!
I know you’ve all been thinking it! The Solar System is in a really boring part of the Milky Way Galaxy. We are marooned out here in one of the remote (some may say back water) areas of the Orion Spiral Arm about 20 degrees above the galactic plane and about 28,000 light years from the center of the galaxy.
The Oort Cloud: Made of Comets, Has Massive Diameter
The Oort Cloud is named after Dutch astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort. Oort speculated that the Solar System was surrounded by a vast spherical cloud of comets.