solar system

The solar system is the Sun plus objects, gas, and dust gravitationally bound to it. (The terms stellar system or star system may be analogously used for stars, but perhaps more often are intended to specifically mean a multiple star systems such as a binary stars.) The solar system includes the eight planets, plus dwarf planets, comets, asteroids and similar minor planets/planetoids, including trans-Neptune objects, SSSB, near-Earth objects, centaurs, plutoids, meteoroids, the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud (these are not mutually exclusive categories), the moons of the planets, and the interplanetary medium (IPM). The solar system has proven to be atypical, lacking super-Earths, the most common type of planet in planetary systems, and including gas giants, which are relatively rare.

The history of the solar system is of interest, from planet formation, including Earth's Moon formation, the late heavy bombardment, and planetary migration: eccentricity and orbital inclination of outer planets suggest some migration occurred. Models developed include the Nice model and the grand tack hypothesis. The study of meteorites, many of which are very old, is extremely useful in forming and evaluating the models.

The phrase solar system is also sometimes used for the analogous system around other stars, e.g., TRAPPIST-1's solar system.