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The outermost region of the Solar System is the theorized Oort cloud, the source for long-period comets, extending to a radius of 2,000–200,000 AU. The closest star to the Solar System, Proxima Centauri, is 4.25 light-years (269,000 AU) away. Both stars belong to the Milky Way galaxy.
Parts-per-million chart of the relative mass distribution of the Solar System, each cubelet denoting 2 × 10 24 kg. This article includes a list of the most massive known objects of the Solar System and partial lists of smaller objects by observed mean radius. These lists can be sorted according to an object's radius and mass and, for the most ...
As of 2022, the precise location of the Solar System in the clouds is an open question in astronomy. [158] 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. [159]
The star, whose mass is roughly half that of the Sun, is currently 62 light-years from the Solar System. It was first noticed in 1999 using data from the Hipparcos satellite, and was estimated to pass less than 1.3 light-years (0.40 pc) from the Sun in 1.4 million years. [73]
NASA's Juno spacecraft captured this view of Jupiter during the mission's 54th close flyby of the giant planet Sept. 7, 2023.
The Andromeda Galaxy is approximately 2.5 million light-years away. 3 × 10 6 ly: The Triangulum Galaxy , at about 3 million light-years away, is the most distant object visible to the naked eye. 5.9 × 10 7 ly: The nearest large galaxy cluster, the Virgo Cluster, is about 59 million light-years away. 1.5 × 10 8 – 2.5 × 10 8 ly
It has a total diameter of roughly 3 megaparsecs (10 million light-years; 9 × 10 19 kilometres), [1] and a total mass of the order of 2 × 10 12 solar masses (4 × 10 42 kg). [2] It consists of two collections of galaxies in a " dumbbell " shape; the Milky Way and its satellites form one lobe, and the Andromeda Galaxy and its satellites ...
The solar wind is a ubiquitous feature of our solar system. But precisely how the sun generates the solar wind has remained unclear. ... relatively small size. They arise from areas a few hundred ...