SOLAR SYSTEM
• The Solar System is made up of all the planets that orbit our Sun.
• In addition to planets, the Solar System also consists of moons, comets, asteroids, satellites of other planets, dust and gas.
• All planets revolve around the sun in a fixed path called orbit.
How our Solar System Evolved?
• Scientists believe that the Solar System evolved from a giant cloud of dust and gas.
• They believe that this dust and gas began to collapse under the weight of its own gravity.
• At the centre of the spinning giant cloud of dust and gas, a small star began to form.
• This star grew larger and larger as it collected more and more of the dust and gas that collapsed into it.
• Away from the centre of this mass where the star was forming, there were smaller clumps of dust and gas that were also collapsing.
• The star in the centre eventually ignited forming our Sun, while the smaller clumps became the planets, moons, dwarf planets, comets, asteroids.
Figure 1: The solar system
• In order of increasing distance from the sun, the eight planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
• Pluto, which was earlier considered a planet, was placed in a separate category called 'dwarf planets' by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in August 2006.