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This is because the distance between Earth and the Sun is not fixed (it varies between 0.983 289 8912 and 1.016 710 3335 au) and, when Earth is closer to the Sun , the Sun's gravitational field is stronger and Earth is moving faster along its orbital path. As the metre is defined in terms of the second and the speed of light is constant for all ...
Thus, the Sun occupies 0.00001% (1 part in 10 7) of the volume of a sphere with a radius the size of Earth's orbit, whereas Earth's volume is roughly 1 millionth (10 −6) that of the Sun. Jupiter, the largest planet, is 5.2 AU from the Sun and has a radius of 71,000 km (0.00047 AU; 44,000 mi), whereas the most distant planet, Neptune, is 30 AU ...
The outer edge of the terrestrial region, between 2 and 4 AU from the Sun, is called the asteroid belt. The asteroid belt initially contained more than enough matter to form 2–3 Earth-like planets, and, indeed, a large number of planetesimals formed there.
In December 2012, NASA announced that in late August 2012, Voyager 1, at about 122 au (1.83 × 10 10 km; 1.13 × 10 10 mi) from the Sun, entered a new region they called the "magnetic highway", an area still under the influence of the Sun but with some dramatic differences. [34]
The closest well-measured approach was Scholz's Star, which approached to ~ 50,000 AU of the Sun some ~70 thousands years ago, likely passing through the outer Oort cloud. [166] There is a 1% chance every billion years that a star will pass within 100 AU of the Sun, potentially disrupting the Solar System. [167]
The Sun is always the center of attention in our solar system, but 2024 was unique for a number of events that unfolded throughout the year – some we knew were coming and others that surprised us.
French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes was the first to propose a model for the origin of the Solar System in his book The World, written from 1629 to 1633.. In his view, the universe was filled with vortices of swirling particles, and both the Sun and planets had condensed from a large vortex that had contracted, which he thought could explain the circular motion of the plane
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