The Solar System

Aetheria or Nimbus City could be good names for a city in the clouds, evoking a sense of mystique and wonder associated with such a location.

Two types of planets in our solar system are terrestrial planets, such as Earth and Mars, which are rocky and have solid surfaces, and gas giants, such as Jupiter and Saturn, which are predominantly made of gases like hydrogen and helium.

A moon orbits around a planet, while a planet orbits around a star. Moons tend to have faster and smaller orbits compared to planets, which follow larger and slower orbits around the star. Additionally, moons' orbits are influenced by the gravitational pull of their host planet, whereas planets are not typically influenced by other celestial bodies in the same way.

More complete answer: The Asteroid Belt is considered the dividing line between the Inner (rocky) Planets and the Outer Planets. Ceres has a rock surface, is in equilibrium shape in the presence of gravity (fancy way of saying it's a ball), but it does not "dominate" its orbit, so it is not considered to be a planet.

Jupiter and Saturn are Gas Giants, and while there must be some "rock" ("metal" in in the sense of something heavier than hydrogen at the atomic level) from in-falling meteors if nothing else, it amounts to pollution in their atmospheres, not solid surfaces. Current thinking is that there isn't anything that could be called a "surface" as one approaches their cores.

Uranus and Neptune are Ice Giants. They probably have rocky cores overlain by thick ice mantles, not rocky surfaces. The key word is "probably" because the data are so sparse that we're left speculating without sufficient facts. Sherlock Holmes would be quite rightly appalled by all this.

And the Plutoids (Pluto, Eris, Sedna, and their ilk in the Kuiper belt) do not "dominate" their orbits and thus, like Ceres, are not considered to be planets (darned big doorstops if you ask me). I must point out that, had the "Planet X" hypothesis that led Clyde Tombaugh to find Pluto been true (it called for a planet three times the mass of Saturn), that world would fail the current planet definition on the same basis. The Kuiper belt is just too big for any conceivable world to "dominate" its orbit.

Disclaimer: Occasional factual, grammatical, or spelling variations are inherent to this document and should not be considered as defects as they enhance the individuality and character of this product.

It depends on what you mean by "alignment." There have been plenty of times that all the planets have been on more or less the same side of the Sun; there probably has never been a precise alignment (within, say, a few degrees) of all the planets simultaneously.

Usually, planets do have grounds, though it usually differs. The four inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), are solid, or rocky. The heat from the sun solidified them. Outer planets' atmospheres (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) are full of gases, BUT, these gases surround the rocky core. So yes, Neptune does have ground, though its not as much as earth.

The solar system is believed to have formed about 5 billion years ago, and by the way, why do you call it YOUR solar system? Do you come from a different solar system? Because if not, then it's OUR solar system.

There is no newly added planet to the solar system. The last major change to the planetary lineup was the reclassification of Pluto as a dwarf planet in 2006.

Our own galaxy has between 100 and 400 billion stars; there are hundreds of billions of similar galaxies in the OBSERVABLE Universe, and it is believed that the entire Universe is much, much bigger than the observable Universe (how much bigger, is not known). It seems that at least a large percentage of those stars have planets, which means they can be called "solar systems".

Of course, its amazing, once you figure out how to deal with the gravity and whole breathing thing.

Exactly. Even though there are lakes (Larger than lake Superior) of Liquid methane on Saturn's moon of Titan, you would freeze solid on contact.

After a successful run the production of Saturn cars was stopped in 2009 after a much sought after deal between GM and Penske Automotive group fell through.

The two belts are the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. The asteroid belt is located between Mars and Jupiter, populated with rocky objects. The Kuiper belt is farther out, beyond Neptune, and is home to many icy bodies and dwarf planets.

A very small percentage. The total mass of the four inner planets is around 0.00059% of the total mass of the solar system. This is around 6 millionths.

The sun makes up around 99.85% of the total solar system mass, while the gas giant planets make up most of the remaining mass.

Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system, with surface temperatures reaching up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit (475 degrees Celsius) due to its thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid clouds that trap heat.

Mercury is too close to the Sun, experiencing extreme temperatures. Venus has a thick toxic atmosphere with a runaway greenhouse effect. Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants without a solid surface. Uranus and Neptune are ice giants with harsh conditions.

The Earth represents about 0.0003% of the mass of the entire solar system.

Planets found outside our own solar system are called exo-solar planets or exoplanets. These are in orbit around other stars. It's ver difficult to detect them due to the distances involved, but with modern techniques, over 500 have been confirmed.

The commonality shared by Jupiter, Neptune, and Saturn is that they are all gas giants in our solar system, composed mostly of hydrogen and helium. They also have rings around them and multiple moons.

Halley's Comet was last seen in our solar system in 1986. It appears approximately every 75-76 years, so the next predicted sighting is around 2061.

Scientists can gather better evidence about how the solar system was formed through continued space exploration missions to study other planetary systems, analyzing meteorites from the early solar system, improving models of planetary formation and evolution, and utilizing advanced telescopes and instruments to study distant objects and phenomena. By combining data from different sources and improving our understanding of the processes involved, scientists can refine their theories about the formation of the solar system.

The universe? You need to clarify...

Our little corner (solar system), the sun light is obvious; seeing how amazing a star filled sky looks is also obvious. Also, depression from lack of sunlight or excessive heat during summer are other ones. However, other celestial bodies? Most likely not, for any celestial body to affect you, another would alter or counter effect....

Earth is the largest terrestrial (all rock) planet in the solar system (check the Answers.com question "How BIG is Venus to earth?" The gas giant planets (like Jupiter, Uranus, and Saturn) do have a rocky surface below the vapor cloud that surrounds them. Jupiter would have the largest rocky surface if all the gas burned away.

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It is over 11 times the diameter of Earth and is known for its massive size and powerful magnetic field.

The Sun is the only luminous body in our solar system. It emits light and heat through nuclear fusion at its core. All other objects in the solar system, such as planets, moons, and asteroids, reflect light from the Sun but do not generate their own light.

Venus, Earth and Pluto.