The Solar System

Our solar system has 8 regular planets and a number of dwarf planets.

Venus actually has a harsher climate than Mercury even though it is further from the sun, and it is surrounded by clouds of CO2 and sulphur. Mercury also probably has ice while venus probably does not. Therefore venus is probably the least hospitable.

Mars.

We are in the Solar system and a part of it. It's like asking "How far is France from Europe?"

Yes... there is no way to judge that as mercury, venus, earth, mars, jup[iter, saturn, uranus and neptune are the planets located in the solar system.

you could reference the distance from the earth to the sun though.

No, planets do not produce their own energy in the same way that stars do. Planets primarily receive energy from their star (the Sun) and release some energy through processes like geological activity and heat from their cores.

Jupiter has the fastest rotation rate of any planet in our solar system, completing a full rotation on its axis in about 9.9 hours.

http://exoplanet.eu/

There are 263 known solar systems (stars with planets) to date (December 2008), though more are found each month.

It is likely that a substantial fraction of the 200 billion stars in our galaxy are orbited by planets. That's just our galaxy--there are about 100 billion galaxies in the universe. You do the math.

There are eight recognized planets in our solar system that orbit the Sun, along with their moons, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, and other space debris. Overall, there are millions of objects that are known to orbit the Sun.

Eventually, our sun is destined to dramatically expand into a 'red giant' before collapsing into a white dwarf. This will mean that every planet up to and including Jupiter will be consumed by the dying sun. However - before that happens, the increased solar activity will strip away our atmosphere !

The planets that have less mass than Earth are Mercury, Mars and Venus.

The planets that have a lower average density than Earth are all of them; Earth is the most dense planet in our solar system.

The sun (Sol), like any star, gained so much mass (of mainly hydrogen, with some helium and lithium) that its core began a fusion reaction. Without gravity, it would not have had enough mass, and by extent pressure, to sustain fusion, and therefore would not be a star.

The most important force during the creation and formation of a new solar system is gravity. Even before the system's creation, gravity aggregates the gases and dust to form the star that will become the system's sun.

You would have thought it to be Mercury as its the closest to the sun, but its actually Venus, the second closest.

Venus gets hotter as the thick carbon Dioxide atmosphere holds the heat more effectively, while Mercury has no atmosphere.

The solar system appears flat when viewed from the side because the planets orbit the sun in roughly the same plane called the ecliptic. This alignment creates the appearance of a flat disk when observed from a different perspective.

A collapsing intersteller cloud.
The solar system was probably born from a nebula, although by now that particular nebula probably no longer exists. Also, any other objects born in it have been moving through the galaxy in their own orbits and may now be nowhere near us.
A small to medium sized cloud of interstellar gas and particulates that coalesced from the remnants of one or more 'local' nova and or supernova explosions.

Yes, it is the region beyond Neptune that extends to the edge of the solar system. Like the asteroid belt, this area contains left over parts that did not make it when the solar system was created. Pluto, comets, and other small and tiny items are scattered out here.

No, our solar system has one sun, which is known as the star we call the Sun.

"You can see this in practical terms by making an ellipse yourself. Put two thumbtacks about four inches apart in a paper-sized piece of cardboard. (These distances are arbitrary, but it will get you started.) Next, tie a loose-fitting string, about seven inches long or so, between the two thumbtacks. Finally, place a pencil inside the string and pull it away from the tacks until the string is taut. The string will look like a triangle with the pencil and the two tacks in the corners. Move the pencil all the way around the cardboard, keeping the string taut, and you will draw an ellipse.

This is illustrated in Figure 2. For the purposes of this article, "F1" will be the left focus point for a horizontal ellipse, or the top focus point for a vertical ellipse. Similarly, "F2" will be the right or bottom focus point, for horizontal or vertical ellipses, respectively.

Now that you've drawn your ellipse, you can move from arts and crafts to astronomy. In 1609, Johannes Kepler reasoned that the planetary orbits were not circular as once thought, but were elliptical with the Sun at one of the two focus points of the elliptical orbit. So, to simulate an orbit, you must be able to determine the location of the foci, and use one as the Sun.

Calculating the Foci

To calculate the focus points, you need to know a few basic things. Using correct terminology, the longest axis, going through the two focus points, is called the major axis. The axis perpendicular to this axis at the center of the ellipse is called the minor axis. Half the major axis, marked in Figure 2 by a, is called the semimajor axis. Half the minor axis, indicated as b in Figure 2, is called the semiminor axis.

Often, the first time learning a subject, it's helpful to work with terms you are comfortable with. To simplify, I'll use the terms "width" and "height," and "xRadius" and "yRadius" when discussing the major, minor, semimajor, and semiminor axes, respectively. There's still one more thing you have to figure out before you can continue.

To find the focus points of an ellipse, you must calculate the eccentricity of the ellipse. This is how elongated it is. Once you know the eccentricity of an ellipse, you can multiply this factor by the "xRadius" (or a in Figure 2) to get the distance from the center point to a focus point. This is marked by ae in Figure 2 and is the offset distance you'll use in your script to move the ellipse to the correct new location.

There are a few ways to calculate the eccentricity of an ellipse. The formula I'll use is:

(If you're interested in knowing how this formula was derived, check out the Related Resources on ellipses, left column.) Writing that in ActionScript, using the aforementioned simplified terms, the formula becomes:

e = Math.sqrt(1 - (yRadius*yRadius) / (xRadius*xRadius))

where Math.sqrt() is the Math object notation for square root.

Once you have the eccentricity of the ellipse, all you have to do is multiply that by the "xRadius" (in the case of our horizontal ellipse) to get the distance from the center of the ellipse to one of the focus points around which you can orbit your MovieClip. You may wish to orbit a MovieClip around a specific point, or it might even be the location of another MovieClip. For example, you might again want your example to show the Earth orbiting the Sun and the Moon orbiting the Earth.

But which focus point should you use? Since the ae (or xRadius * e) distance you just calculated is the same from the center to each focus point, the last step you need to take is to determine how to apply the offset. One method would be to use a conditional statement (if or switch, for example) to specify whether you add or subtract the offset from the center point of your ellipse. But there is a simpler way. If you use -1 to represent the left/top focus, 0 to represent the center, and 1 to represent the right/bottom focus, you can multiply the ae offset by this factor and subtract it from the desired anchor point.

For example, say you are placing your ellipse in the center of your stage at (275,200); you have an ellipse that is 250 pixels wide and 150 pixels tall. This results in an eccentricity of .8. Since your ellipse is 250 pixels wide, the "xRadius" is 125, or half the width. Therefore, the x offset would be calculated like this:

centerX -= (xRadius * e) * ellipseFocusPoint;

1) -1 for left focus point

275 -= (125*.8) * -1

275 - (-100)" - alex from yahoo answers

gas.

Earth's Position In The Solar System Is Unique For Life To Exist Because The Sun Is Hitting It In A Perfect Position Meaning It Doesn't Have Too Much Sun , Which Can Dry Out The Planet &' Doesn't Have Very Little Sun That It Will Become Freezing . Humans Or Any Living Creature Cannot Live Where Their Is To Much Sun They Can Possibly Die Of Hydration . They Cannot Life Somewhere To Cold Because They Can Freeze To Death . This Is Why Earth's Position Is Unique . Bonus : Scientist Say Its Possible For Mars To Have Life Because Its Not Too Close Nor Far Away From The Sun , In Fact Its Very Close To Earth . In My Opinion , I Think Anything Is Possible !

The gravitational pull of the sun and other celestial bodies in our solar system cause objects to move in regular and predictable patterns. This gravitational force influences the motion of planets, moons, and other objects, keeping them in stable orbits around the sun.

Well,they both have four planets unless you include Pluto.

Plus, they're both separated by the asteroid belt, and they're both revolving around the sun, and they're all in the solar system, and they're all contained in the universe.

No, a revolution is the movement of an object in a circular or elliptical path around another object, such as a planet orbiting around a star like the sun.

There are eight planets in the solar system, but the planet closest to the sun is Mercury.

The astronomical unit (AU) is the unit commonly used to measure distances in the solar system. One astronomical unit is the average distance between Earth and the Sun, about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers).