How big is the Solar System?

How big is the diameter of the solar system? This article will give you the answer.

The solar system is basically the sun and its surroundings. The planets, moons, meteors, asteroids, comets and all the other matter are small pieces of the sun that orbit around it. So the sun and the things that orbit around it make up a solar system.

What is the solar system?

The solar system is a complex of giant celestial bodies orbiting the Sun, held by the Sun's gravity. These celestial bodies are called planets.

Our Earth is currently located in this region, but we are too small to be considered. Simply put, the solar system consists of the Sun holding the planets around it through gravity and these planets revolve around it in fixed orbits.

The Earth we live on is one of these planets. There are other objects in the Solar System that are retained by the Sun:

• Meteorite
• Asteroid
• Comet

The Sun accounts for about 99.85% of the total mass of the entire solar system. It is the largest and brightest star composed of hydrogen and helium gases, with hydrogen accounting for 75% and helium accounting for only 25%.

This means that planets and other objects only take up 0.15% of the total space, so we can imagine how big the Sun is.

Interesting facts about the solar system

• The solar system we are a part of is 4.5 billion years old.
• It takes about 8 minutes for sunlight to reach Earth.
• It takes 2 light years to travel across the solar system.
• Most of the asteroids in our solar system are located between Mars and Jupiter.
• The length of a year varies on each planet due to their distance from the Sun.
• The closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri.
• The closest solar system to our own is Alpha Centauri.
• In the Milky Way, only 15% of the stars contain planets and the number of such solar systems is 100 billion.

The Solar System is just one planetary system in the vast universe. The planetary system has the Sun at its center and eight planets in nearly circular orbits within the gravitational range of the Sun. Using our Earth as a standard, let's compare how huge the planets in the Solar System are and how far they are from the Sun.

• How fast does a rocket have to go to overcome gravity and escape Earth?
• What if a plane took off on 8 planets in the solar system?

Compare the sizes of planets in the Solar System

• Earth, our blue planet, has a diameter of 12,742km.
• The Sun has a diameter 109 times that of the Earth.
• Mercury has a diameter 0.38 times that of Earth.
• Venus is about the same size as Earth, with a diameter 0.95 times that of Earth.
• Mars is half the size of Earth, with a diameter 0.53 times that of Earth.
• Jupiter is 11 times the diameter of Earth.
• Saturn has a diameter 9.4 times that of Earth.
• Uranus and Neptune are both four times the diameter of Earth.
• Dwarf planet Pluto has a diameter of 0.18 Earth.

Of these objects, Pluto is the farthest from the Sun at a distance of 39.5 AU and the closest is Mercury at a distance of 0.4 AU.

The distance between the Sun and the Earth is 1 AU, approximately equal to 149,597,870.700 km. This is an astronomical unit of measurement for measuring distances in space.