Solar System

The Solar System was the star system in which the Earth was located, and in which most of human history took place. The Solar System was centred around the Sun, contained 7 major planets (3 rocky planets, 2 gas giants and 2 ice giants) and numerous minor planets, planetoids, asteroids, centaurs and comets. By the Second Century AU, the Solar System also contained numerous spacecraft, space stations and habitats.
== Structure and composition ==
The Solar System contained a single star, the Sun, which served as it's barycentre.
The Solar System contained 30 planet bodies, including two gas giant planets (Jupiter and Saturn) 2 ice giant planets (Uranus and Neptune), three rocky major planets (Earth, Venus and Mars), ten minor planets (the largest being Mercury, Eris, Pluto, Sedna) and 13 major moons (including Earth's Moon and those around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, in addition to Charon).
In addition to this, the Solar System contained numerous sub-planetary bodies (i.e those not massive enough to be rounded by their own gravity). These included planetoids such as Pallas, and Vesta, asteroids such as Eros and Cruithne, Centaurs, Comets, Meteoroids, gas and dust.
== List of important Solar System bodies by mass. ==
Name 	Type 	Mass 	Diameter 	Distance from Sun	Population (250 AU)
Sun 	Star 	1M☉ / 330,000M⊕	864,000 miles (1.3 million km)	N/A 	0
Jupiter 	Gas Giant 	317 M⊕ 	86,881 miles (140,000 km) 	 	1 million
Saturn 	Gas Giant 	95 M⊕ 	72,400 miles (116,500 km) 	 	10 million
Neptune 	Ice Giant 	17 M⊕ 	30,600 miles (49,200 km) 	 	500,000
Uranus 	Ice Giant 	15 M⊕ 	31,500 miles (50,700 km) 	 	20 million
Earth 	Rocky Planet 	1 M⊕ 	7,900 miles (12,700 km) 	 	16 billion
Venus 	Rocky Planet 	0.8 M⊕ 	7,520 miles (12,100 km) 	 	5 billion
Mars 	Rocky Planet 	0.1 M⊕ 	4,222 miles (6,800 km) 	 	3 billion
Mercury 	Minor Planet 	0.05 M⊕ 	3,030 miles (4,880 km) 	 	1 billion
Ganymede	Major Moon 	0.024 M⊕ 	3,270 miles (5,270 km) 	 	1 billion
Titan 	Planetary Moon 	0.022 M⊕ 	3,201 miles (5,151 km) 	 	2 billion
Callisto	Major Moon 	0.018 M⊕ 	3,000 miles (4,800 km) 	 	600 million
Io 	Major Moon 	0.015 M⊕ 	2,260 miles (3,640 km) 	 	100 million
The Moon	Major Moon 	0.0123 M⊕ 	2,160 miles (3,470 km) 	 	3 billion
Europa 	Major Moon 	0.008 M⊕ 	1,900 miles (3,100 km) 	 	900 million
Triton 	Major Moon 	0.0036 M⊕ 	1,680 miles (2700 km) 	 	100 million
Eris 	Minor Planet 	0.0028 M⊕ 	1,445 miles (2,326 km) 	 	5 million
Pluto 	Minor Planet 	0.0022 M⊕ 	1,477 miles (2,377 km) 	 	50 million
Haumea 	Minor Planet 	0.00067 M⊕ 	1,217 miles (1,960 km) 	 	100,000
Titania 	Major Moon 	0.00059 M⊕ 	1,000 miles (1,600 km) 	 	50 million
Oberon 	Major Moon 	0.0005 M⊕ 	946 miles (1,520 km) 	 	50 million
Rhea 	Major Moon 	0.00039 M⊕ 	949 miles (1,528 km) 	 	5 million
Iapetus 	Major Moon 	0.00033 M⊕ 	912 miles (1,469 km) 	 	1 million
Charon 	Major Moon/Minor Planet	0.00025 M⊕ 	752 miles (1,212 km) 	 	5 million
Ariel 	Major Moon 	0.00023 M⊕ 	720 miles (1,158 km) 	 	100,000
Umbriel 	Major Moon 	0.0002 M⊕ 	726 miles (1,169 km) 	 	100,000
Quaoar 	Minor Planet 	0.0002 M⊕ 	807 miles (1,300 km) 	 	50,000
Dione 	Major Moon 	0.00018 M⊕ 	697 miles (1,123 km) 	 	100,000
Ceres 	Minor Planet 	0.000157 M⊕ 	587 miles (946 km) 	 	1 billion
Tethys 	Major Moon 	0.000103 M⊕ 	659 miles (1,062 km) 	 	50,000
== History ==
The Solar System formed form a protoplanetary disk 30 million years after the Sun itself, but 30 million years before the complete formation of the Earth, in approximately 4.57 billion BU. It is likely that the formation of the solar system was triggered by a supernova.
The Solar System originally contained hundreds of spherical minor planets, but most of these underwent collisions that either destroyed them (reducing them to asteroids) or caused them to merge into larger objects.
Larger rocky objects in the outer reaches of the solar system amassed huge quantities of hydrogen and helium gases in their atmospheres, becoming gas giants and ice giants.
In around 3.9 billion BU, a huge quantity of asteroids moved through the solar system, causing the late heavy bombardment.
In the centuries prior to the Century War, the humans that lived on the Earth developed spacefaring capability and sent numerous unmanned probes into the solar system, including the pioneer, voyager and new horizons probes. The first manned missions were sent to the Moon at this time. Decades later, manned missions were sent to Mars.
During the Century War, there was little exploration of the Solar System. Various parties launched manned missions to the Moon in order to claim it's resources as their own (although no lunar resources were actually used during the war). The Averte Statum launched the Sun Gun into space in 30 BU. The weapon was parked at the L1 Lagrange point, a vantage point form which it could focus a large area of solar energy into a single beam, and direct that beam at the Earth. The Sun Gun was destroyed in 11 BU by a nuclear weapon dispatched by the Australian Empire and the Vostok Union.
During the Dark Ages, exploration of the Solar System resumed under the World Empire. Permanent bases for human habitation were constructed on the Moon, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Ceres and the Jovian Moons.
During the Settlement, millions of people emigrated from Earth to inhabit the various other planets of the solar system, even though terraforming was still in it's infancy. The outer solar system, including very distant bodies in the scattered disk, was colonised. The first manned vessel reached the outer Oort Cloud in 144 AU.
During the Sleeper Age and the following Superluminal age, more and more spacecraft began to leave the Solar System. In addition to this, the solar system became populated with ever more large spacecraft, space stations and habitats.
Category:Star systems
Category:Heavily populated star systems
Category:Biogenic star systems