Solar System

This page contains information about our own Solar System, about other Solar Systems and about what Solar Systems actually are. A **solar system**, or star system, consists of one or more stars and planets orbiting a common barycenter. A star system is contained by a spiral arm or a non-spiral galaxy. It contains several planetary systems and stars. All objects included in a solar system, or star system are all held together with gravity, and the main source of gravity is the star. Technically, the term refers to the star around which Earth orbits (the Sun, which is called **Sol**), but either "solar system" or the more general term "star system" can be used to refer to any planet-star pair. Basically, all Solar Systems, including our own, are typically found within the so-called stellar bubbles.

There are 250 billion+ solar systems in the Milky Way.

Observable Universe → Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex → Laneakea Supercluster → Local Group → Milky Way → Orion Arm → Gould Belt → Local Bubble → Local Interstellar Cloud

Our **Solar System** is a planetary system located within the local interstellar cloud, about 26.500 light years away from the galactic center of the Milky Way Galaxy and Sagittarius A central supermassive black hole. Our Solar System contains the following planets, dwarf planets and stars:

* Sun (star)
* Mercury (planet)
* Venus (planet)
* Earth (planet)
* Mars (planet)
* Ceres (dwarf planet)
* Jupiter (planet)
* Saturn (planet)
* Uranus (planet)
* Neptune (planet)
* Pluto (dwarf planet)
* Orcus (dwarf planet)
* Ixion (dwarf planet)
* Varuna (dwarf planet)
* Haumea (dwarf planet)
* Quaoar (dwarf planet)
* Makemake (dwarf planet)
* 2007 OR10 (dwarf planet)
* Eris (dwarf planet)
* 2014 UZ224 (dwarf planet)
* Planet 9 (hypothetical planet)
* Sedna (dwarf planet)
* 541132 Leleākūhonua (dwarf planet)
* About 40.000 to 60.000 other dwarf planets
* Possibly other yet undiscovered dwarf planets

All Solar Systems that exist out there have their own contents, including planets, stars, etc. According to data, there are about 20 nonillion + stars in total in our Universe with very possibly, even more planets. There are obviously fewer Solar Systems in total in the Universe, as they are made up by stars and planets.

**Our planetary system** is the only one officially called “**solar system**,” but astronomers have discovered more than 3,200 other **stars** with **planets** orbiting them in **our** galaxy. That's just **how many** we've found so far. There **many** more **planetary systems** out there waiting to be discovered. Possibly septillions of other Planetary Systems exist in the entire Universe, both the observable part of it and the rest.

Solar system by size from 1,000 km to 1 million km radius. (1 billion cu km (1 Zl) to 1 quintillion cu km (1 Dl) The ordering may be different depending on whether one chooses radius or mass, because some objects are denser than others. For instance, Uranus is slightly larger than Neptune but less massive. Neptune is more massive and denser than Uranus, And although Ganymede and Titan are slightly larger than Mercury, they have less than half Mercury's mass. Titan is actually only 30*% as massive as Mercury*. This means some objects in the lower tables, despite their smaller radii, may be more massive than objects in the upper tables because they have a higher density. There are not all solar system objects, but the basic objects we need to know and study most.

## Size smaller than Moon

 Triton
 Pluto
 Eris
(3,920,000 sq km)

We will expand this page soon and add more objects.

## Characteristics

We couldn't add again the accidentally removed template, so here are some characteristics:

Age: Million or Billions of years

Mass: 1/11 Sun's mass to 100< Sun's mass. Ours is 1.00134 Sun's mass.

Size: Millions, Billions or Trillions of km. Ours has a diameter of 3,2 light years.

Contains: Stars, planets, moons, materials, dust, comets, etc. etc.

Superior Systems: Star / Galaxy

Equivalent Systems: Star and Planetary Systems

Inferior Systems: Planets and moons

## Formation

Solar Systems are formed via the Protoplanetary disk and during their formation their star forms. The star forms in a few million years and what is left from the materials turns into planets. Also, more things form, like asteroids, moons, dust, etc. etc. etc......... The star forms very violently and planets form with rocks and gases that are threw out to outer space from the host star. In this way, the entire Solar System is formed.

More detailed, the formation and evolution of our Solar System began about 4.57 billion years ago with the gravitational collapse of a small part of a giant molecular cloud. Most of the collapsing mass collected in the center, forming the Sun, while the rest flattened into a Protoplanetary disk out of which the planets, moons, asteroids, and other small Solar System bodies formed. This model, known as the nebular hypothesis, was first developed in the 18th century by Emanuel Swedenborg, Immanuel Kant, and Pierre-Simon Laplace. Its subsequent development has interwoven a variety of scientific disciplines including astronomy, chemistry, geology, physics, and planetary science. Since the dawn of the space age in the 1950s and the discovery of extrasolar planets in the 1990s, the model has been both challenged and refined to account for new observations. Our Solar System has evolved considerably since its initial formation. Many moons have formed from circling discs of gas and dust around their parent planets, while other moons are thought to have formed independently and later been captured by their planets. Still others, such as Earth's Moon, may be the result of giant collisions. Collisions between bodies have occurred continually up to the present day and have been central to the evolution of the Solar System. The positions of the planets might have shifted due to gravitational interactions. This planetary migration is now thought to have been responsible for much of the Solar System's very early development and evolution.

The nebular hypothesis says that the Solar System formed from the gravitational collapse of a fragment of a giant molecular cloud. The cloud was about 20 parsec (65 light years) across, while the fragments were roughly 1 parsec (three and a quarter light-years) across. The further collapse of the fragments led to the formation of dense cores 0.01–0.1 parsec (2,000–20,000 AU) in size. One of these collapsing fragments (known as the *presolar nebula*) formed what became the Solar System. The composition of this region with a mass just over that of the Sun (M☉) was about the same as that of the Sun today, with hydrogen, along with helium and trace amounts of lithium produced by Big Bang nucleosynthesis, forming about 98% of its mass. The remaining 2% of the mass consisted of heavier elements that were created by nucleosynthesis in earlier generations of stars. Late in the life of these stars, they ejected heavier elements into the interstellar medium.

The oldest inclusions found in meteorites, thought to trace the first solid material to form in the presolar nebula, are 4568.2 million years old, which is one definition of the age of the Solar System. Studies of ancient meteorites reveal traces of stable daughter nuclei of short-lived isotopes, such as iron-60, that only form in exploding, short-lived stars. This indicates that one or more supernovae occurred nearby. A shock wave from a supernova may have triggered the formation of the Sun by creating relatively dense regions within the cloud, causing these regions to collapse. Because only massive, short-lived stars produce supernovae, the Sun must have formed in a large star-forming region that produced massive stars, possibly similar to the Orion Nebula. Studies of the structure of the Kuiper belt and of anomalous materials within it suggest that the Sun formed within a cluster of between 1,000 and 10,000 stars with a diameter of between 6.5 and 19.5 light years and a collective mass of 3,000 M☉. This cluster began to break apart between 135 million and 535 million years after formation. Several simulations of our young Sun interacting with close-passing stars over the first 100 million years of its life produce anomalous orbits observed in the outer Solar System, such as detached objects. Because of the conservation of angular momentum, the nebula spun faster as it collapsed. As the material within the nebula condensed, the atoms within it began to collide with increasing frequency, converting their kinetic energy into heat. The center, where most of the mass collected, became increasingly hotter than the surrounding disc. Over about 100,000 years, the competing forces of gravity, gas pressure, magnetic fields, and rotation caused the contracting nebula to flatten into a spinning protoplanetary disc with a diameter of about 200 AU and form a hot, dense protostar (a star in which hydrogen fusion has not yet begun) at the centre.

At this point in its evolution, the Sun is thought to have been a T Tauri star. Studies of T Tauri stars show that they are often accompanied by discs of pre-planetary matter with masses of 0.001–0.1 M☉. These discs extend to several hundred AU—the Hubble Space Telescope has observed protoplanetary discs of up to 1000 AU in diameter in star-forming regions such as the Orion Nebula—and are rather cool, reaching a surface temperature of only about 1,000 K (730 °C; 1,340 °F) at their hottest. Within 50 million years, the temperature and pressure at the core of the Sun became so great that its hydrogen began to fuse, creating an internal source of energy that countered gravitational contraction until hydrostatic equilibrium was achieved. This marked the Sun's entry into the prime phase of its life, known as the main sequence. Main-sequence stars derive energy from the fusion of hydrogen into helium in their cores. The Sun remains a main-sequence star today. As the early Solar System continued to evolve, it eventually drifted away from its siblings in the stellar nursery, and continued orbiting the Milky Way's center on its own. All Solar Systems are perhaps formed according to the molecular hypothesis.

## Our Own

Our Solar System formed nearly 4.603.000.000 to 4.610.000.000 years ago and it is currently about 46.4% through the Sun's total main-sequence age. It has an asteroid belt between the small inner rocky planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, and the large outer gaseous and icy giant planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Pluto is an ex-planet, now known a dwarf planet, like many more dwarf planets that exist out there in the Kuiper belt and even beyond it. Our Solar System ends in the Oort Cloud, which is a region of comets and asteroids nearly 700 - 100,000 Astronomical Units ( AU ) away from the Sun. The Sun's magnetic field reaches *even farther than the Oort Cloud and covers the entire Solar System, protecting it and it's contents from cosmic radiation of stars.*

The inner planets of the Solar System are rocky and outer ones are made of hydrogen and helium gases like a balloon. Planets are actually quite far away from each other and the diagrams used to show the planets are used, just to show the planets, and not to scale distances. Our ancestors knew 5 planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn and saw them with the naked eye. They saw that they moved relative to the stars. Planets, meaning ''wanderer'', from Greek ''planetes'' ''periplanieme'' Greek verb, means to move, or spread out, or suddenly appear of unknown origins. Thus, the word planet means wandering star. Wandering stars is always a term applied to the planets. Wandering = periplanieme, Greek verb, planets = wandering stars.

The four terrestrial or **inner planets** have dense, rocky compositions, few or no moons, and no ring systems. They are composed largely of refractory minerals, such as the silicates—which form their crusts and mantles—and metals, such as iron and nickel, which form their cores. Three of the four inner planets (Venus, Earth and Mars) have atmospheres substantial enough to generate weather; all have impact craters and tectonic surface features, such as rift valleys and volcanoes. The term *inner planet* should not be confused with *inferior planet*, which designates those planets that are closer to the Sun than Earth is (i.e. Mercury and Venus).

Asteroids except for the largest, Ceres, are classified as small Solar System bodies and are composed mainly of refractory rocky and metallic minerals, with some ice. They range from a few metres to hundreds of kilometres in size. Asteroids smaller than one meter are usually called meteoroids and micrometeoroids (grain-sized), depending on different, somewhat arbitrary definitions. The asteroid belt occupies the orbit between Mars and Jupiter, between 2.3 and 3.3 AU from the Sun. It is thought to be remnants from the Solar System's formation that failed to coalesce because of the gravitational interference of Jupiter. The asteroid belt contains tens of thousands, possibly millions, of objects over one kilometre in diameter. Despite this, the total mass of the asteroid belt is unlikely to be more than a thousandth of that of Earth. The asteroid belt is very sparsely populated; spacecraft routinely pass through without incident The principal component of the Solar System is the Sun, a G2 main-sequence star that contains 99.86% of the system's known mass and dominates it gravitationally. The Sun's four largest orbiting bodies, the giant planets, account for 99% of the remaining mass, with Jupiter and Saturn together comprising more than 90%. The remaining objects of the Solar System (including the four terrestrial planets, the dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, and comets) together comprise less than 0.002% of the Solar System's total mass.

James Craig Watson dscovered the asteroid 105 Artemis in September 16, 1868, which is a dark asteroid of carboneous composition and has a diameter of 119,1 km. It was discovered by radars in a distance 1,07 AU from the Sun. An occultation of the star HD 197999 was observed in 1982, which gave an estimated chord length of 110 km. Between 1981 and 2021, 105 Artemis has been observed to occult 23 stars. There is also the asteroid called 78 Diana, discovered by Karl Theodor Robert Luther in March 15 1863. It is a large and dark main-belt asteroid that is orbiting the Sun with a period of 4.24 years. Its composition is carbonaceous and primitive. 78 Diana occulted a star on September 4, 1980. A diameter of 116 km was measured, closely matching the value given by the IRAS satellite.

Asteroids in the asteroid belt are divided into asteroid groups and families based on their orbital characteristics. Asteroid moons are asteroids that orbit larger asteroids. They are not as clearly distinguished as planetary moons, sometimes being almost as large as their partners. The asteroid belt also contains main-belt comets, which may have been the source of Earth's water. Jupiter trojans are located in either of Jupiter's L4 or L5 points (gravitationally stable regions leading and trailing a planet in its orbit); the term *trojan* is also used for small bodies in any other planetary or satellite Lagrange point. Hilda asteroids are in a 2:3 resonance with Jupiter; that is, they go around the Sun three times for every two Jupiter orbits. The inner Solar System also contains near-Earth asteroids, many of which cross the orbits of the inner planets. Some of them are potentially hazardous objects.

The outer region of the Solar System is home to the giant planets and their large moons. The centaurs and many short-period comets also orbit in this region. Due to their greater distance from the Sun, the solid objects in the outer Solar System contain a higher proportion of volatiles, such as water, ammonia, and methane than those of the inner Solar System because the lower temperatures allow these compounds to remain solid. The four outer planets, or giant planets (sometimes called Jovian planets), collectively make up 99% of the mass known to orbit the Sun. Jupiter and Saturn are together more than 400 times the mass of Earth and consist overwhelmingly of the gases hydrogen and helium, hence their designation as gas giants. Uranus and Neptune are far less massive—less than 20 Earth masses (M⊕) each—and are composed primarily of ices. For these reasons, some astronomers suggest they belong in their own category, ice giants. All four giant planets have rings, although only Saturn's ring system is easily observed from Earth. The term *superior planet* designates planets outside Earth's orbit and thus includes both the outer planets and Mars.

Most large objects in orbit around the Sun lie near the plane of Earth's orbit, known as the ecliptic. The planets are very close to the ecliptic, whereas comets and Kuiper belt objects are frequently at significantly greater angles to it. As a result of the formation of the Solar System, planets and almost all other objects orbit the Sun in the same direction that the Sun is rotating (counter-clockwise, as viewed from above Earth's north pole). There are exceptions, such as Halley's Comet. Most of the larger moons orbit their planets in this *prograde* direction (with Triton being the largest *retrograde* exception) and most larger objects rotate themselves in the same direction (with Venus being a notable *retrograde* exception).

Kepler's laws of planetary motion describe the orbits of objects about the Sun. Following Kepler's laws, each object travels along an ellipse with the Sun at one focus. Objects closer to the Sun (with smaller semi-major axes) travel more quickly because they are more affected by the Sun's gravity. On an elliptical orbit, a body's distance from the Sun varies over the course of its year. A body's closest approach to the Sun is called its *perihelion*, whereas its most distant point from the Sun is called its *aphelion*. The orbits of the planets are nearly circular, but many comets, asteroids, and Kuiper belt objects follow highly elliptical orbits. The positions of the bodies in the Solar System can be predicted using numerical models.

The distance from Earth to the Sun is 1 astronomical unit [AU] (150,000,000 km; 93,000,000 mi). For comparison, the radius of the Sun is 0.0047 AU (700,000 km). Thus, the Sun occupies 0.00001% (10−5 %) of the volume of a sphere with a radius the size of Earth's orbit, whereas Earth's volume is roughly one millionth (10−6) that of the Sun. Jupiter, the largest planet, is 5.2 astronomical units (780,000,000 km) from the Sun and has a radius of 71,000 km (0.00047 AU), whereas the most distant planet, Neptune, is 30 AU (4.5×109 km) from the Sun.With a few exceptions, the farther a planet or belt is from the Sun, the larger the distance between its orbit and the orbit of the next nearer object to the Sun. For example, Venus is approximately 0.33 AU farther out from the Sun than Mercury, whereas Saturn is 4.3 AU out from Jupiter, and Neptune lies 10.5 AU out from Uranus. Attempts have been made to determine a relationship between these orbital distances (for example, the Titius–Bode law), but no such theory has been accepted. Some Solar System models attempt to convey the relative scales involved in the Solar System on human terms. Some are small in scale (and may be mechanical—called orreries)—whereas others extend across cities or regional areas. The largest such scale model, the Sweden Solar System, uses the 110-metre (361 ft) Ericsson Globe in Stockholm as its substitute Sun, and, following the scale, Jupiter is a 7.5-metre (25-foot) sphere at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, 40 km (25 mi) away, whereas the farthest current object, Sedna, is a 10 cm (4 in) sphere in Luleå, 912 km (567 mi) away. If the Sun–Neptune distance is scaled to 100 metres, then the Sun would be about 3 cm in diameter (roughly two-thirds the diameter of a golf ball), the giant planets would be all smaller than about 3 mm, and Earth's diameter along with that of the other terrestrial planets would be smaller than a flea (0.3 mm) at this scale.

The solar wind, a stream of charged particles flowing outwards from the Sun, creates a bubble-like region in the interstellar medium known as the heliosphere. The heliopause is the point at which pressure from the solar wind is equal to the opposing pressure of the interstellar medium; it extends out to the edge of the scattered disc. The Oort cloud, which is thought to be the source for long-period comets, may also exist at a distance roughly a thousand times further than the heliosphere. The Solar System is located in the Orion Arm, 26,500 light-years from the center of the Milky Way galaxy. At a distance of more than a few solar radii from the Sun, the solar wind reaches speeds of 250–750 km/s and is supersonic, meaning it moves faster than the speed of the fast magnetosonic wave. The flow of the solar wind is no longer supersonic at the termination shock. Other related phenomena include the aurora (northern and southern lights), the plasma tails of comets that always point away from the Sun, and geomagnetic storms that can change the direction of magnetic field lines.

The solar wind is observed to exist in two fundamental states, termed the slow solar wind and the fast solar wind, though their differences extend well beyond their speeds. In near-Earth space, the slow solar wind is observed to have a velocity of 300–500 km/s, a temperature of ~100 MK and a composition that is a close match to the corona. By contrast, the fast solar wind has a typical velocity of 750 km/s, a temperature of 800 MK and it nearly matches the composition of the Sun's photosphere. The slow solar wind is twice as dense and more variable in nature than the fast solar wind.The slow solar wind appears to originate from a region around the Sun's equatorial belt that is known as the "streamer belt", where coronal streamers are produced by magnetic flux open to the heliosphere draping over closed magnetic loops. The exact coronal structures involved in slow solar wind formation and the method by which the material is released is still under debate. Observations of the Sun between 1996 and 2001 showed that emission of the slow solar wind occurred at latitudes up to 30–35° during the solar minimum (the period of lowest solar activity), then expanded toward the poles as the solar cycle approached maximum. At solar maximum, the poles were also emitting a slow solar wind.The fast solar wind originates from coronal holes, which are funnel-like regions of open field lines in the Sun's magnetic field. Such open lines are particularly prevalent around the Sun's magnetic poles. The plasma source is small magnetic fields created by convection cells in the solar atmosphere. These fields confine the plasma and transport it into the narrow necks of the coronal funnels, which are located only 20,000 km above the photosphere. The plasma is released into the funnel when these magnetic field lines reconnect.

The Sun's magnetic field plays a vital role in our Solar System. It reaches even farther away from the Sun itself than the Oort Cloud and it covers the entire Solar System. Thus, it protects all the planets, including our own planet, Earth, from cosmic radiation of other Stars, that also radiate the same energy that the Sun does. The other Stars also produce very strong magnetic fields that cover their Solar Systems and protect them from our Sun's radiation. In this way, all Solar Systems, including our own, are protected from all radiation emitted by all stars. Generally, magnetic fields of all Solar Systems do cause friction with each other and some times radiation does enter the Solar Systems, although this is actually a relatively rare occasion, but it can happen, meaning that radiation might enter our Solar System, and even reach Earth. Thankfully, the Sun's magnetic filed is probably strong enough to keep Earth safe, as scientists claim so far. The Sun's magnetic field that reaches outward, farther than the Oort Cloud and protects the entire Solar System is called 'the Helio-sphere'.

Because the Sun is a G2 main - sequence star, it does nuclear fusion in it's core with a very high temperature of 27.000.000 degrees Fahrenheit, or 15.000.000 degrees Celsius Hydrogen fuses into Helium releasing energy. But as mentioned above, the magnetic field of the Sun reaches even farther than the outer edges of the Oort Cloud, covering the entire Solar System. The Sun's nuclear fusion causes it's magnetic lines to be really complex. In the core of the Sun, hydrogen forms Helium and He3 forms Helium and Hydrogen. The very high pressure and temperature within the Sun cause it's magnetic field and magnetic lines to expand outwards, towards the planets and orbits and be all around in the Solar System and even further than 100.000 Astronomical Units ( AU ).

In the core of the Sun, nuclear fusion is very powerful and every single second, the Sun emits incredible amounts of energy, so much in fact, that this energy is actually much higher in amounts of all the energy that the entire human species has ever produced on planet Earth, from the very Beginning, since Adam and Eve / Eva. The temperature at the **sun's core** is around 15 million degrees Celsius (28 million degrees Fahrenheit), which is almost 3,000 time higher than at the **surface**. The **core** is 10 times as dense as gold or lead, and the pressure is 340 billion times the atmospheric pressure on Earth's surface. There are two distinct reactions in which four hydrogen nuclei may eventually result in one helium nucleus: the proton–proton chain reaction – which is responsible for most of the Sun's released energy – and the CNO cycle.

Obviously, the magnetic lines of the Sun, reach all the dwarf planets. Thus the Sun emits heat, and all this heat and the very large amounts of energy are released to all the inner rocky, outer gaseous and small dwarf planets, giving very small quantities of heat, even to the very farthest dwarf planets, like Sedna, and also to the hypothetical but yet undiscovered 'till this day, Planet 9.

As mentioned above, in the prologue of the article, Solar Systems are found inside the so-called stellar bubbles. The stellar bubble for our Solar System is the Oort Cloud, which is located 700 - 100,000 Astronomical Units ( AU ) away from the Sun and contains many comets and asteroids. The dwarf planet Sedna, as well as the hypothetical, yet undiscovered planet 9, live more than 800 AU away from the Sun, inside the inner region of the Oort Cloud. Sedna's maximum distance from the Sun is actually about 937 AU from the Sun, making the Sedna the most distant dwarf planet. But it's minimum distance is nearly 76 AU. Scientists don't know why that is, but they believe that Planet 9 is messing with Sedna's orbit, causing it change distances from the Sun from 76 to 937 AU, evidence that the hypothetical planet 9 exists, although too date, efforts to detect this yet undiscovered hypothetical planet have failed. Scientists also believe that there are possibly even more dwarf planets out there in the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. In total, all dwarf planets are thought to be perhaps around 10.000 in number. Yet, there are no theories that more planets exist in our Solar System, apart from Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and of course planet 9. Sedna is sometimes classified as a large minor planet, but it has reached the criteria for dwarf status, thus it is a dwarf planet. It is also usually called 90377 Sedna and it takes nearly 11,408 years to orbit the Sun just once. And that's actually only 1 year on Sedna. The dwarf planet is 3/4 the size of Pluto, and it's original name was **2003 VB12.** Astronomer Michael E. Brown, co-discoverer of Sedna and numerous other possible dwarf planets, thinks that it is the most scientifically important trans-Neptunian object found to date, because understanding its unusual orbit is likely to yield valuable information about th origin and early evolution of the Solar System.

There is however an even more distant object than Sedna called 541132 Leleākūhonua, 2015 TG 387, it's nicknamed The Goblin beacause of the TG in it's name and that's because it was discovered in October halloween 2015. It's real appearance is currently unknown. It's maximum distance from the Sun in 2.300 Au, likely becasue of the hypothetical planet X, which probably has been messing with The Goblin's orbit. The only 3 currently known sednoids are to this moment Leleākūhonua, Sedna and 2012 VP113. They all have elliptical orbits that have likely been messed by Planet 9, a hint of the existence of the hypothetical trans - Neptunian planet, which is probably messing with the orbits of more trans - Neptunian objects.

## Distances

The Solar Systems are very distant from one another. For example, the nearest star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, which is nearly 4.2465 light years ( LY ) away, a very long distance, about 125 thousand times farther than Earth is from the Sun. Proxima Centauri has two confirmed exoplanets: Proxima Centauri b and Proxima Centauri c. Based on a parallax of 768.0665±0.0499 mas, published in 2020 in Gaia Data Release 3, Proxima Centauri is 4.2465 light-years (1.3020 pc; 268,550 AU) from the Sun. Previously published parallaxes include: 768.5±0.2 mas in 2018 by Gaia DR2, 768.13±1.04 mas, in 2014 by the Research Consortium On Nearby Stars; 772.33±2.42 mas, in the original Hipparcos Catalogue, in 1997; 771.64±2.60 mas in the Hipparcos New Reduction, in 2007; and 768.77±0.37 mas using the Hubble Space Telescope's fine guidance sensors, in 1999. From Earth's vantage point, Proxima Centauri is separated from Alpha Centauri by 2.18 degrees, or four times the angular diameter of the full Moon. Proxima Centauri also has a relatively large proper motion—moving 3.85 arcseconds per year across the sky. It has a radial velocity toward the Sun of 22.2 km/s. Among the known stars, Proxima Centauri has been the closest star to the Sun for about 32,000 years and will be so for about another 25,000 years, after which Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B will alternate approximately every 79.91 years as the closest star to the Sun. In 2001, J. García-Sánchez *et al.* predicted that Proxima Centauri will make its closest approach to the Sun in approximately 26,700 years, coming within 3.11 ly (0.95 pc). A 2010 study by V. V. Bobylev predicted a closest approach distance of 2.90 ly (0.89 pc) in about 27,400 years, followed by a 2014 study by C. A. L. Bailer-Jones predicting a perihelion approach of 3.07 ly (0.94 pc) in roughly 26,710 years. Proxima Centauri is orbiting through the Milky Way at a distance from the Galactic Centre that varies from 27 to 31 kly (8.3 to 9.5 kpc), with an orbital eccentricity of 0.07. Ever since the discovery of Proxima Centauri, it has been suspected to be a true companion of the Alpha Centauri binary star system. Data from the Hipparcos satellite, combined with ground-based observations, were consistent with the hypothesis that the three stars are a bound system. For this reason, Proxima Centauri is sometimes referred to as Alpha Centauri C. Kervella et al. (2017) used high-precision radial velocity measurements to determine with a high degree of confidence that Proxima and Alpha Centauri are gravitationally bound. Proxima Centauri's orbital period around the Alpha Centauri AB barycenter is 547000+6600−4000 years with an eccentricity of 0.5±0.08; it approaches Alpha Centauri to 4300+1100−900 AU at periastron and retreats to 13000+300−100 AU at apastron. At present, Proxima Centauri is 12,947 ± 260 AU (1.94 ± 0.04 trillion km) from the Alpha Centauri AB barycenter, nearly to the farthest point in its orbit.

Such a triple system can form naturally through a low-mass star being dynamically captured by a more massive binary of 1.5–2 M☉ within their embedded star cluster before the cluster disperses. However, more accurate measurements of the radial velocity are needed to confirm this hypothesis. If Proxima Centauri was bound to the Alpha Centauri system during its formation, the stars are likely to share the same elemental composition. The gravitational influence of Proxima might also have stirred up the Alpha Centauri protoplanetary disks. This would have increased the delivery of volatiles such as water to the dry inner regions, so possibly enriching any terrestrial planets in the system with this material. Alternatively, Proxima Centauri may have been captured at a later date during an encounter, resulting in a highly eccentric orbit that was then stabilized by the galactic tide and additional stellar encounters. Such a scenario may mean that Proxima Centauri's planetary companions have had a much lower chance for orbital disruption by Alpha Centauri.

Six single stars, two binary star systems, and a triple star share a common motion through space with Proxima Centauri and the Alpha Centauri system. The space velocities of these stars are all within 10 km/s of Alpha Centauri's peculiar motion. Thus, they may form a moving group of stars, which would indicate a common point of origin, such as in a star cluster.

## Luhman 16

**Luhman 16** (WISE 1049−5319, WISE J104915.57−531906.1) is a binary brown-dwarf system in the southern constellation Vela at a distance of approximately 6.5 light-years (2.0 parsecs) from the Sun. These are the closest-known brown dwarfs and the closest system found since the measurement of the proper motion of Barnard's Star in 1916, and the third-closest-known system to the Sun (after the Alpha Centauri system and Barnard's Star). The primary is of spectral type L7.5 and the secondary of type T0.5 ± 1 (and is hence near the L–T transition). The masses of Luhman 16 A and B are 33.5 and 28.6 Jupiter masses, respectively, and their ages are estimated to be 600–800 million years. Luhman 16 A and B orbit each other at a distance of about 3.5 astronomical units with an orbital period of approximately 27 years.

The brown dwarfs were discovered by Kevin Luhman, astronomer from Pennsylvania State University and a researcher at Penn State's Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, from images made by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Earth-orbiting satellite—NASA infrared-wavelength 40 cm (16 in) space telescope, a mission that lasted from December 2009 to February 2011; the discovery images were taken from January 2010 to January 2011, and the discovery was announced in 2013 (the pair are the only two objects announced in the discovery paper). The system was found by comparing WISE images at different epochs to reveal objects that have high proper motions. Luhman 16 appears in the sky close to the galactic plane, which is densely populated by stars; the abundance of light sources makes it difficult to spot faint objects. This explains why an object so near to the Sun was not discovered in earlier searches. The brown dwarf does belong with 96% probability to the thin disk of the Milky Way and therefore does not belong to a young moving group. Based on lithium absorption lines the system has a maximum age of about 3-4.5 Gyr. Observations with the VLT showed that the system is older than 120 Myr.

In December 2013, perturbations of the orbital motions in the system were reported, suggesting a third body in the system. The period of this possible companion was a few months, suggesting an orbit around one of the brown dwarfs. Any companion would need to be below the brown-dwarf mass limit, because it would otherwise have been detected through direct imaging. They estimated the odds of a false positive as 0.002%, assuming the measurements had not been made in error. If confirmed, this would have been the first exoplanet discovered astrometrically. They estimate the planet to likely have a mass between "a few" and 30 MJup, although they mention that a more massive planet would be brighter and therefore would affect the "photocenter" or measured position of the star. This would make it difficult to measure the astrometric movement of an exoplanet around it. Subsequent astrometric monitoring of Luhman 16 with the Very Large Telescope has excluded the presence of any third object with a mass greater than 2 MJup orbiting around either brown dwarf with a period between 20 and 300 days. Luhman 16 does not contain any close-in giant planets. Observations with the *Hubble Space Telescope* in 2014–2016 confirmed the nonexistence of any additional brown dwarfs in the system. It additionally ruled out any Neptune mass (17 M⊕) objects with an orbital period of one to two years. This makes the existence of the previously found exoplanet candidate highly unlikely.

A study by Gillon *et al.* (2013) found that Luhman 16B exhibited uneven surface illumination during its rotation. On 5 May 2013, Crossfield *et al.* (2014) used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) to directly observe the Luhman 16 system for five hours, the equivalent of a full rotation of Luhman 16B. Their research confirmed Gillon *et al.*'s observation, finding a large, dark region at the middle latitudes, a bright area near its upper pole, and mottled illumination elsewhere. They suggest this variant illumination indicates "patchy global clouds", where darker areas represent thick clouds and brighter areas are holes in the cloud layer permitting light from the interior. Gillon *et al.* determined that Luhman 16B's illumination patterns change rapidly, on a day-to-day basis.Although Luhman 16A has also been observed in the same fashion as 16B, no similar variance in illumination was found. In a study by Osten *et al.* (2015), Luhman 16 was observed with the Australia Telescope Compact Array in radio waves and with the Chandra X-ray Observatory in X-rays. No radio or X-ray activity was found at Luhman 16 AB, and constraints on radio and X-ray activity were presented, which are "the strongest constraints obtained so far for the radio and X-ray luminosity of any ultracool dwarf".

## VFTS 352

**VFTS 352** is a contact binary star system 160,000 light-years (49,000 pc) away in the Tarantula Nebula, which is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is the most massive and earliest spectral type overcontact system known.

The discovery of this O-type binary star system made use of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, and the description was published on 13 October 2015. VFTS 352 is composed of two very hot (40,000 °C), bright and massive stars of equal size that orbit each other in little more than a day. The stars are so close that their atmospheres overlap. Extreme stars like the two components of VFTS 352 are thought to be the main producers of elements such as oxygen. The centres of the stars are separated by just 12 million kilometres [3]. In fact, the stars are so close that their surfaces overlap and a bridge has formed between them. VFTS 352 is not only the most massive known in this tiny class of “overcontact binaries” — it has a combined mass of about 57 times that of the Sun — but it also contains the hottest components — with surface temperatures above 40 000 degrees Celsius.

Extreme stars like the two components of VFTS 352, play a key role in the evolution of galaxies and are thought to be the main producers of elements such as oxygen. Such double stars are also linked to exotic behaviour such as that shown by “vampire stars”, where a smaller companion star sucks matter from the surface of its larger neighbour (eso1230). In the case of VFTS 352, however, both stars in the system are of almost identical size. Material is, therefore, not sucked from one to another, but instead may be shared. The component stars of VFTS 352 are estimated to be sharing about 30 per cent of their material. Such a system is very rare because this phase in the life of the stars is short, making it difficult to catch them in the act. Because the stars are so close together, astronomers think that strong tidal forces lead to enhanced mixing of the material in the stellar interiors.

“*The VFTS 352 is the best case yet found for a hot and massive double star that may show this kind of internal mixing*,” explains lead author Leonardo A. Almeida of the University of São Paulo, Brazil. “*As such it’s a fascinating and important discovery*.”Astronomers predict that VFTS 352 will face a cataclysmic fate in one of two ways. The first potential outcome is the merging of the two stars, which would likely produce a rapidly rotating, and possibly magnetic, gigantic single star. “*If it keeps spinning rapidly it might end its life in one of the most energetic explosions in the Universe, known as a long-duration gamma-ray burst,*” says the lead scientist of the project, Hugues Sana, of the University of Leuven in Belgium.

The second possibility is explained by the lead theoretical astrophysicist in the team, Selma de Mink of University of Amsterdam: “*If the stars are mixed well enough, they both remain compact and the VFTS 352 system may avoid merging. This would lead the objects down a new evolutionary path that is completely different from classic stellar evolution predictions. In the case of VFTS 352, the components would likely end their lives in supernova explosions, forming a close binary system of black holes. Such a remarkable object would be an intense source of gravitational waves.*”Proving the existence of this second evolutionary path would be an observational breakthrough in the field of stellar astrophysics. But, regardless of how VFTS 352 meets its demise, this system has already provided astronomers with valuable new insights into the poorly understood evolutionary processes of massive overcontact binary star systems.

The future of VFTS 352 is uncertain, and there are two possible scenarios. If the two stars merge, a very rapidly rotating star will be produced. If it keeps spinning rapidly it might end its life in a long-duration gamma-ray burst. In a second hypothetical scenario, the components would end their lives in supernova explosions, forming a close binary black hole system, hence a potential gravitational wave source through black hole–black hole merger. The 3 known sednoids are Leleākūhonua, Sedna and 2012 VP113.

## GW Orionis

**GW Orionis** is a T Tauri type pre-main sequence hierarchical triple star system. It is associated with the Lambda Orionis star-forming region and has an extended circumtrinary protoplanetary disk.

GW Orionis first came to the attention of astronomers when it was published, as MHA 265-2, in a list of stars whose spectra have bright H and K lines of calcium. The multiple nature of GW Orionis was first discovered by Robert D. Mathieu, Fred Adams, and David W. Latham during a radial velocity survey of late-type H-alpha emission stars in the Lambda Orionis Association. Radial velocities of the primary star were measured from 45 high-resolution spectra and were used to determine the orbital elements. A trend in the radial velocity residuals indicated either an additional stellar companion with an orbital period of years or a global asymmetric gravitational instability in a circumstellar disc. GW Orionis B and the third member of the system, GW Orionis C, were directly detected in 2011 using the IOTA interferometer located on Mount Hopkins in Arizona.

GW Orionis has a large and massive protoplanetary disk surrounding it. The dust continuum emission suggests a disk radius of approximately 400 astronomical units. The disk has an inclination of 137.6°. Observations of the disk made with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array identified three separate dust rings located at ~46, 188, and 338 astronomical units from the center of the system. The three rings have estimated dust masses 74, 168, and 245 times that of the Earth. According to Jiaqing Bi and coauthors, the outermost ring is the largest protoplanetary dust ring they are aware of. The dust rings are misaligned and the innermost dust ring is eccentric probably due to ongoing dynamical interactions between the triple stars and the circumtriple disk.

The A and B components of GW Orionis form a double-lined spectroscopic binary with a 241-day period while component C orbits the inner pair with an 11.5 year period. It is likely that at least one of the stellar orbital planes is misaligned with the plane of the protoplanetary disk by as much as 45°. A light curve covering 30 years revealed 30 day eclipse events varying in depth between 0.1 and 0.7 magnitudes as well as a 0.2 magnitude sinusoidal oscillation that is aligned with the AB–C orbital period. This suggests that the A–B pair may be partially obscured due to dust in the disk as the pair approaches apoastron in the hierarchical orbit.

## EBLM J0555-57

**EBLM J0555-57** is a triple star system approximately 630 light-years from Earth. **EBLM J0555-57Ab**, the smallest star in the system, orbits its primary star with a period of 7.8 days, and at the time of discovery, was the smallest known star with a mass barely sufficient to just enable the fusion of hydrogen to helium in its core.

EBLM J0555-57, also known as CD−57 1311, is a triple star system in the constellation Pictor, which contains a visual binary system consisting of two sun-like stars separated by 2.5": EBLM J0555-57Aa, a magnitude 9.98 spectral type F8 star, and EBLM J0555-57B, a magnitude 10.76 star. No orbital motion has been detected but they have almost identical radial velocities and are assumed to be gravitationally bound. Component A of the system is itself an eclipsing binary (EBLM J0555-57Ab orbiting EBLM J0555-57Aa). Eclipses, also known as transits in the context of planetary searches, have been detected in the near infrared, with brightness drops of 0.05% during the eclipse. The shape and duration of the transits allow the radii of the two stars to be determined. A full solution of the orbit gives a period of 7 days and 18 hours, with a low eccentricity of 0.09, an almost edge-on inclination of 89.84°, and a semi-major axis of 0.08 AU.

EBLM J0555-57Ab has a mass of about 85 ± 4 ( probably 83 ) Jupiter masses, or 0.081 Solar masses. The star has a radius slightly smaller than that of Saturn, or 0.08 Solar radii. EBLM J0555-57Ab is situated at the lower mass limit for hydrogen-burning stars predicted by current stellar models. EBLM J0555-57Ab was discovered by a group of scientists at the University of Cambridge associated with the EBLM project (Eclipsing Binary, Low Mass), using data collected by the WASP project. WASP (*Wide Angle Search for Planets*) is searching for exoplanets using the transit method. Additional properties of the star were determined using Doppler spectroscopy, to measure the periodic radial velocity variation of the primary star due to the gravitational influence of its companion. EBLM J0555-57Ab is the smallest and least massive star currently known, but it's not considered possible that stars can be smaller, but only about the same size as EBLM J0555-57Ab and the same mass.

EBLM J0555-57Aa and EBLM J0555-57B are relatively Sun-like stars in size and mass. But EBLM J0555-57Ab is much, much smaller in size and a lot less massive, and as mentioned above, it barely has just enough mass to cause hydrogen-helium fusion, and if EBLM J0555-57Ab was just only a sliver smaller or less massive, it would be unable to cause nuclear fusion. Thus, it would not be a star, but a brown dwarf failed star. It is 118,000 km in diameter. By comparison, Saturn is 120,536 km in diameter, and EBLM J0555-57Ab is actually the only known real, hydrogen to helium fusing star that is actually smaller in size than Saturn, although the star 250 times more massive than the planet with rings.

We have an idea. Stars can be renamed. UY Scuti was named BD-125055 and then UY Scuti. We can rename the EBLM J0555-57 System ''Creation'', rename EBLM J0555-57Aa ''Adam'', rename EBLM J0555-57Ab ''Eve / Eva'' and rename EBLM J0555-57B ''Beginning' '. According to the story, God's creation was Adam and Eve and that was the Beginning. EBLM J0555-57Ab can also be called ''Eva'' since translated to Latin, Adam is Adam and Eve is Eva, but is always used in English as a name. Eve and Eva are the exact same name and while Adam means ground, soil, earth, Eve / Eva means life, living, alive, full of life and mother of life.

EBLM J0555-57 System rename: Creation

EBLM J0555-57Aa rename: Adam

EBLM J0555-57Ab rename: Eve / Eva

EBLM J0555-57B rename: Beginning

Cool, right?

We could rename the VFTS 352 System 2 stars Adam and Eve and the also rename the System 'Creation', or we could use the same names for the GW Orionis System. Both Systems are located in God's hand nebula, but EBLM is also a very important System that has to do with God as well. 2 of it's stars are Sun-like ( EBLM J0555-57Aa renamed by us Adam and EBLM J0555-57B renamed by us Beginning), so it's like that God gives our Sun more than once, like care, and the other star ( EBLM J0555-57Ab renamed by us Eve / Eva ) just barely has enough mass to cause hydrogen to helium fusion, again shows that God gives even the least amount of energy needed, and the Bible says that God gives energy to all the Stars. For these 2 reasons, we picked to rename the EBLM J0555-57 System after Adam and Eve / Eva.

## Habitability

Our own Solar System is known to have possible fossils of microbes on the surfaces of the Moon, Mars and Mercury. Venus also has possible biological findings on it's very upper atmosphere and all the gas giants, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, possibly hold life life in their atmospheres, but this potential life has to float there. It's not clear whether the four Gas Giants have life, because they do have some important elements for life but they lack a solid surface. But 3 of the Moons of Jupiter, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto have oceans under their frozen surface. And 2 of Saturn's moons, Titan and Enceladus, also have liquid water oceans under their surfaces. Plus, Titan has an atmosphere, with methane and ethane and also methane in liquid phase on it's surface. So maybe it does support life, like here on Earth, where life uses liquid water, so maybe on Titan life uses methane. This is just a possibility.

Titan is one of the most habitable satellites and also places in our Solar System. Whether there is **life on Titan**, the largest moon of Saturn is at present an open question and a topic of scientific assessment and research. Titan is far colder than Earth, but of all the places in the solar system, Titan is the only place besides Earth known to have liquids in the form of rivers, lakes and seas on its surface. Its thick atmosphere is chemically active and rich in carbon compounds. On the surface there are small and large bodies of both liquid methane and ethane, and it is likely that there is a layer of liquid water under its ice shell; some scientists speculate that these liquid mixes may provide pre-biotic chemistry for living cells different from those on Earth.

In June 2010, scientists analysing data from the *Cassini–Huygens* mission reported anomalies in the atmosphere near the surface which could be consistent with the presence of methane-producing organisms, but may alternatively be due to non-living chemical or meteorological processes. The *Cassini–Huygens* mission was not equipped to look directly for micro-organisms or to provide a thorough inventory of complex organic compounds.Titan's consideration as an environment for the study of prebiotic chemistry or potentially exotic life stems in large part due to the diversity of the organic chemistry that occurs in its atmosphere, driven by photochemical reactions in its outer layers. As mass spectrometry identifies the atomic mass of a compound but not its structure, additional research is required to identify the exact compound that has been detected. Where the compounds have been identified in the literature, their chemical formula has been replaced by their name above. The figures in Magee (2009) involve corrections for high pressure background. Other compounds believed to be indicated by the data and associated models include ammonia, polyynes, amines, ethylenimine, deuterium hydride, allene, 1,3 butadiene and any number of more complex chemicals in lower concentrations, as well as carbon dioxide and limited quantities of water vapour. On other Solar Systems, there are also possibilities of life. On systems like the system of Proxima Centauri. Prior to the discovery of Proxima Centauri b, the TV documentary *Alien Worlds* hypothesized that a life-sustaining planet could exist in orbit around Proxima Centauri or other red dwarfs. Such a planet would lie within the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri, about 0.023–0.054 AU (3.4–8.1 million km) from the star, and would have an orbital period of 3.6–14 days. A planet orbiting within this zone may experience tidal locking to the star. If the orbital eccentricity of this hypothetical planet is low, Proxima Centauri would move little in the planet's sky, and most of the surface would experience either day or night perpetually. The presence of an atmosphere could serve to redistribute the energy from the star-lit side to the far side of the planet.

Proxima Centauri's flare outbursts could erode the atmosphere of any planet in its habitable zone, but the documentary's scientists thought that this obstacle could be overcome. Gibor Basri of the University of California, Berkeley, mentioned that "no one [has] found any showstoppers to habitability". For example, one concern was that the torrents of charged particles from the star's flares could strip the atmosphere off any nearby planet. If the planet had a strong magnetic field, the field would deflect the particles from the atmosphere; even the slow rotation of a tidally locked planet that spins once for every time it orbits its star would be enough to generate a magnetic field, as long as part of the planet's interior remained molten. Other scientists, especially proponents of the rare-Earth hypothesis, disagree that red dwarfs can sustain life. Any exoplanet in this star's habitable zone would likely be tidally locked, resulting in a relatively weak planetary magnetic moment, leading to strong atmospheric erosion by coronal mass ejections from Proxima Centauri.

Proxima Centauri b, or Alpha Centauri Cb, orbits the star at a distance of roughly 0.05 AU (7.5 million km) with an orbital period of approximately 11.2 Earth days. Its estimated mass is at least 1.17 times that of the Earth. Moreover, the equilibrium temperature of Proxima Centauri b is estimated to be within the range where water could exist as liquid on its surface; thus, placing it within the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri. The first indications of the exoplanet Proxima Centauri b were found in 2013 by Mikko Tuomi of the University of Hertfordshire from archival observation data. To confirm the possible discovery, a team of astronomers launched the Pale Red Dot project in January 2016. On August 24, 2016, the team of 31 scientists from all around the world, led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé of Queen Mary University of London, confirmed the existence of Proxima Centauri b through a peer-reviewed article published in *Nature*. The measurements were performed using two spectrographs: HARPS on the ESO 3.6 m Telescope at La Silla Observatory and UVES on the 8 m Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory. Several attempts to detect a transit of this planet across the face of Proxima Centauri have been made. A transit-like signal appearing on September 8, 2016 was tentatively identified, using the Bright Star Survey Telescope at the Zhongshan Station in Antarctica.

The habitability of Proxima Centauri b has not been established, but the planet is subject to stellar wind pressures of more than 2,000 times those experienced by Earth from the solar wind. This radiation and the stellar winds would likely blow any atmosphere away, leaving the subsurface as the only potentially habitable location on that planet. The exoplanet is orbiting within the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri, the region where, with the correct planetary conditions and atmospheric properties, liquid water may exist on the surface of the planet. The host star, with about an eighth of the mass of the Sun, has a habitable zone between ∼0.0423–0.0816 AU. In October 2016, researchers at France's CNRS research institute stated that there is a considerable chance of the planet harboring surface oceans and having a thin atmosphere. However, unless the planet transits in front of its star from the perspective of Earth, it is difficult to test these hypotheses.

**Proxima Centauri c** (also called **Proxima c** or **Alpha Centauri Cc**) is a very strong exoplanet candidate orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, which is the closest star to the Sun and part of a triple star system. It is located approximately 4.2 light-years (1.3 parsecs; 4.0×1013 kilometres) from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus, making it and Proxima b the closest known exoplanets to the Solar System. Proxima Centauri c is a super-Earth or mini-Neptune about 7 times as massive as Earth, orbiting at roughly 1.49 astronomical units (223,000,000 km) every 1,928 days (5.28 yr). Due to its large distance from Proxima Centauri, the exoplanet is unlikely to be habitable, with a low equilibrium temperature of around 39K. The planet was first reported by Italian astrophysicist Mario Damasso and his colleagues in April 2019. Damasso's team had noticed minor movements of Proxima Centauri in the radial velocity data from the ESO's HARPS instrument, indicating a possible second planet orbiting Proxima Centauri. The discovery was published in January 2020. In June 2020, the planet's existence was confirmed using Hubble astrometry data from c. 1995, allowing its inclination and true mass to be determined. Also in June 2020, a possible directly imaged counterpart of Proxima c was detected in the infrared with SPHERE, but the authors admit that they "did not obtain a clear detection". If their candidate source is in fact Proxima Centauri c, it is too bright for a planet of its mass and age, implying that the planet may have a ring system with a radius of around 5 RJ. Unlike Proxima Centauri b, the plnaet c is likely not habitable.