All About It
Scientists have hypothesized that approximately 4.6 billion years ago, our solar system was formed from clouds of dust and gas, which is called a nebula. That nebula in particular is called the solar nebula. As the solar nebula condensed, the shapes that our solar system contains were formed, including comets, planets, asteroids, and more. The solar system today is approximately 8.44 light years wide.
Layers of the Solar System
- The Sun: The Sun has an approximated temperature of 9,941 °F.
- The Inner Planets, or Terrestrial Planets:
Venus: Has an average temperature of 870 °F. Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system because its thick atmosphere retains most of the heat it gathers. This planet is approximately 67 million miles away from the sun. It also has no known moons to exist around it.
Earth: Has an average temperature of 60 °F. Earth, our home planet, is the only known planet in our solar system to have any signs of life exist on it. Out of the all the planets with atmospheres, Earth's is the only breathable one.We are about 93 million miles away from the sun.
Mars: Has an average temperature of -20 °F. It has many of the same conditions as Earth, but its atmosphere is not yet breathable, so no creatures live on Mars.
- The Outer Planets, or Gas Giants
Saturn: Has an average temperature of -220 °F. This planet's rings are especially unique because of their color, so it is nicknamed the Jewel of our planet. Saturn is practically a giant ball of helium and hydrogen.
Uranus: Has an average temperature of -320 °F. This planet is slightly tinted blue because of the amount of methane among the other gases that make up the atmosphere of this planet. Uranus is nicknamed the sideways planet because its equator is almost perpendicular to its orbital path. It is about 1.8 billion miles from the sun.
Neptune: Has an average temperature of -330 °F. Winds with supersonic speed are always flying around this planet. Neptune is so far away from the sun at 2.8 billion miles, that it takes 165 earth years to complete a full orbit.
- The Kuiper Belt: Objects in this layer have an average surface temperature of -370 °F. The Kuiper Belt actually is the layer in which Pluto and many other dwarf planets reside. It is about 3 billion miles away from the sun, and contains many other large icy bodies of space material.
- The Oort Cloud:Not much is known about the Oort Cloud, but we do know it seems to hang at the outside edge of our solar system as an icy debris cloud.