Solar System

Aphelion is the point in an object's orbit farthest from the Sun, where orbital velocity is slowest.

Apogee is the point in an object's orbit around Earth that is farthest from Earth (analogous to aphelion for Sun orbits)...

Asteroids are rocky remnants from the Solar System's formation, too small to be rounded by gravity, predominantly found ...

The asteroid belt (main belt) is a torus-shaped region between Mars and Jupiter containing hundreds of thousands of rock...

Comets are icy bodies from the outer Solar System that develop spectacular tails when approaching the Sun as their ices ...

A Coronal Mass Ejection is an enormous burst of plasma and magnetic field ejected from the Sun's corona into space, carr...

Dwarf planets meet criteria 1 and 2 of planethood but have NOT cleared their orbital neighborhoods—they share orbital sp...

The ecliptic is the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over a year, representing Earth's orbital plane...

The heliosphere is the vast bubble of solar wind and magnetic field surrounding the Solar System, separating it from int...

The Kuiper Belt is a disk-shaped region beyond Neptune (30-50 AU) containing thousands of icy bodies, short-period comet...

A magnetosphere is the region around a planet dominated by its magnetic field, where the field deflects the solar wind a...

A meteor is the visible light phenomenon ("shooting star") when a meteoroid enters Earth's atmosphere at high speed and ...

A meteorite is a meteoroid fragment that survives atmospheric entry and lands on Earth's surface, providing direct sampl...

A meteoroid is a small rocky or metallic object in space, typically debris from asteroids or comets, ranging from dust g...

Near-Earth Objects are asteroids or comets with orbits bringing them within 1.3 AU of the Sun, potentially crossing Eart...

The Oort Cloud is a hypothetical spherical shell of icy planetesimals surrounding the Solar System at extreme distances ...

Eccentricity (e) quantifies how elongated an orbit is, ranging from 0 (perfect circle) to 1 (parabola—unbound).

Inclination is the angle between an object's orbital plane and a reference plane (usually the ecliptic for Solar System ...

Perigee is the point in an object's orbit around Earth that is nearest to Earth.

Perihelion is the point in an object's orbit nearest to the Sun, where orbital velocity is fastest.

A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star, massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, and has cleared its orbit...

A solar flare is a sudden, intense burst of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun's surface, caused by magnetic energy ...

The solar wind is a continuous stream of charged particles (mostly electrons and protons) flowing outward from the Sun's...

Trans-Neptunian Objects are bodies orbiting beyond Neptune (>30 AU), including Kuiper Belt objects, scattered disk objec...

Trojan asteroids are objects trapped at a planet's L4 and L5 Lagrange points—stable gravitational equilibrium positions ...