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The principal component of the Solar System is the Sun, a G-type main-sequence star that contains 99.86% of the system's known mass and dominates it gravitationally. [37] The Sun's four largest orbiting bodies, the giant planets, account for 99% of the remaining mass, with Jupiter and Saturn together comprising more than 90%.
A multi-star system consists of two or more gravitationally bound stars that orbit each other. The simplest and most common multi-star system is a binary star, but systems of three or more stars exist. For reasons of orbital stability, such multi-star systems are often organized into hierarchical sets of binary stars. [116]
The Sun is 1.4 million kilometers (4.643 light-seconds) wide, about 109 times wider than Earth, or four times the Lunar distance, and contains 99.86% of all Solar System mass. The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star that makes up about 99.86% of the mass of the Solar System. [26]
Alpha Centauri B, also known as Toliman, is the secondary star of the binary system. It is a main-sequence star of spectral type K1-V, making it more an orange colour than Alpha Centauri A; [97] it has around 90% of the mass of the Sun and a 14% smaller diameter.
The Solar System is divided into the inner Solar System (subdivided into the inner planets and the asteroid belt), the outer Solar System (subdivided into the outer planets and centaurs), comets, the trans-Neptunian region (subdivided into the Kuiper belt, and the scattered disc) and the farthest regions (e.g., boundaries of the heliosphere ...
Barnard's Star is a small red dwarf star in the constellation of Ophiuchus.At a distance of 5.96 light-years (1.83 pc) from Earth, it is the fourth-nearest-known individual star to the Sun after the three components of the Alpha Centauri system, and is the closest star in the northern celestial hemisphere. [15]
Sirius is a binary star system consisting of two white stars orbiting each other with a separation of about 20 AU [e] (roughly the distance between the Sun and Uranus) and a period of 50.1 years. The brighter component, termed Sirius A, is a main-sequence star of spectral type early A , with an estimated surface temperature of 9,940 K . [ 14 ]
Classified as spectral type M1.5Iab-Ib, Antares is a red supergiant, a large evolved massive star and one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye. If placed at the center of the Solar System, it would extend out to somewhere in the asteroid belt. Its mass is calculated to be around 13 or 15 to 16 times that of the Sun. [10]