Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Orbit of the Solar System: 17,200 pc 5.31×10 17: The average diameter of the orbit of the Solar System relative to the Galactic Center. The Sun's orbital radius is roughly 8,600 parsecs, or slightly over halfway to the galactic edge. One orbital period of the Solar System lasts between 225 and 250 million years. [34] [35] Milky Way Galaxy ...
The solar wind affects many other systems in the Solar System; for example, variations in the Sun's own magnetic field are carried outward by the solar wind, producing geomagnetic storms in the Earth's magnetosphere. The heliospheric current sheet out to the orbit of Jupiter
The Stonyhurst heliographic coordinate system, developed at Stonyhurst College in the 1800s, has its origin (where longitude and latitude are both 0°) at the point where the solar equator intersects the central solar meridian as seen from Earth. Longitude in this system is therefore fixed for observers on Earth. [8] [5]
The Solar System is believed to have formed according to the nebular hypothesis, first proposed in 1755 by Immanuel Kant and independently formulated by Pierre-Simon Laplace. [2] This theory holds that 4.6 billion years ago the Solar System formed from the gravitational collapse of a giant molecular cloud. This initial cloud was likely several ...
As of 2022, the precise location of the Solar System in the clouds is an open question in astronomy. [259] Within 10 light-years of the Sun there are relatively few stars, the closest being the triple star system Alpha Centauri, which is about 4.4 light-years away and may be in the Local Bubble's G-Cloud. [260]
The incoming solar storm arose from a strong flare near “Region 3500” on the Sun, scientists say. Solar storms are known to interfere with the Earth’s magnetic field and cause damages to ...
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the planet Earth: . Earth – third planet from the Sun, the densest planet in the Solar System, the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets, and the only astronomical object known to harbor life.
A 2012 artistic impression of the early Solar System's protoplanetary disk from which Earth and other Solar System bodies were formed. The oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 4.5682 +0.0002 −0.0004 Ga (billion years) ago. [35] By 4.54 ± 0.04 Ga the primordial Earth had formed. [36]