solar system

American  

[soh-ler sis-tuhm] / ˈsoʊ lər ˌsɪs təm /

noun

1. the sun together with all the planets and other bodies that revolve around it.

2. a similar system with celestial bodies revolving around a star other than the sun.

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solar system British  

noun

1. the system containing the sun and the bodies held in its gravitational field, including the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), the dwarf planets (Eris, Pluto, and Ceres), the asteroids, and comets

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solar system Scientific  

1. Often Solar System. The Sun together with the eight planets, their moons, and all other bodies that orbit it, including dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, meteoroids, and Kuiper belt objects. The outer limit of the solar system is formed by the heliopause.

2. See more at nebular hypothesis

3. A similar system surrounding another star. Over two dozen stars are known to have planets in orbit around them, though none is known to have as extensive or diverse a group of orbiting bodies as the Sun's system.

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solar system Cultural  

1. The region of the universe near the sun that includes the sun, the nine known major planets and their moons or satellites, and objects such as asteroids and comets that travel in independent orbits. The major planets, in order of their average distance from the sun, are Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

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Closer Look

The solar system consists of much more than just the Sun and planets. It contains billions of other objects and extends far beyond the outermost planets. Several hundred thousand asteroids revolve around the Sun in orbits mainly between Mars and Jupiter. Countless smaller meteoroids, including cometary debris and fragments from the collision of larger bodies, are also present, some of which approach Earth's orbit closely enough to be known as near Earth objects. In addition, as many as a billion objects, most the size of a speck of dust, cross through our atmosphere as meteors or micrometeoroids each day, though the vast majority are invisible to observers on the ground. Astronomers have recorded more than 800 comets passing through the inner part of the solar system. Billions more lie in the area surrounding the solar system, in the disk of debris known as the Kuiper belt and in the swarm of comets known as the Oort cloud. All of these objects orbit the Sun at high speeds. Some orbits, like those of the planets near the Sun, are almost circular. Other orbits, like those of comets that make their way in among the planets, are stretched out into long ellipses. As in most scientific fields, new discoveries are constantly changing our understanding and definitions. The objects in the Kuiper belt, for example, were discovered in the 1990s. When the new planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History opened in 2000, many visitors were shocked to find that Pluto, long known as the ninth planet, had been demoted. In 2006 the International Astronomical Union classified Pluto as a dwarf planet.

Etymology

Origin of solar system

First recorded in 1695–1705

Example Sentences

"I like to think about it as walking through a doorway into how humankind explores the solar system going forward."

From Barron's • Apr. 7, 2026

The findings also raise questions about the distant future of our own solar system.

From Science Daily • Apr. 4, 2026

Studying Uranus could also help scientists better understand similar planets beyond our solar system, since ice giants appear to be common throughout the Milky Way.

From Science Daily • Apr. 3, 2026

Among those selected was Fulton's Grand Orrery, a working model of the solar system which predates the museum itself.

From BBC • Mar. 30, 2026

Our galaxy is a huge disk of stars millions of light- years across, and the solar system is somewhere near the outside edge of the disk.

From "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon

Related Words

• earth