Planet earth and the solar system

What is the make up of solar system? The solar system is made up of the Sun and other bodies associated with it: the nine planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) and their moons, as well as comets, asteroids, dust and gases. A comet is a relatively small extraterrestrial body consisting of a frozen mass that travels around the sun in a highly elliptical orbit). Asteroids are metallic, rocky bodies without atmospheres that orbit the Sun but are too small to be classified as planets. Known as “minor planets,” tens of thousands of asteroids congregate in the so-called main asteroid belt: a vast, doughnut-shaped ring located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter from approximately 2 to 4 AU (186 million to 370 million miles/300 million to 600 million kilometres). Gaspra and Ida are main belt asteroids. Asteroids are thought to be primordial material prevented by Jupiter’s strong gravity from accreting into a planet-sized body when the solar system was born 4.6 billion years ago. It is estimated that the total mass of all asteroids would comprise a body approximately 930 miles (1,500 kilometres) in diameter less than half the size of the Moon. Known asteroids range in size from the largest -- Ceres, the first discovered asteroid in 1801 -- at about 600 miles (1,000 kilometres) in diameter down to the size of pebbles. Sixteen asteroids have diameters of 150 miles (240 kilometres) or greater. The majority of main belt asteroids follow slightly elliptical, stable orbits, revolving in the same direction as the Earth and taking from three to six years to complete a full circuit of the Sun. The sun in the solar system is our star and all the nine planets including our earth rotate around the sun at different orbits and different speeds. Also all the planets rotate around their own axis. All the nine planets are positioned in different distances from the sun in the order below and the difference is vast which subsequently makes temperatures different on different planets. Do the planets and moons in our solar system tend to orbit and rotate in the same plane If so, what would be the cause of such uniformity and why do all the planets orbit the Sun in the same direction?The planets and most other large bodies of the solar system do orbit the Sun in about the same plane. This plane that contains the orbits of most of the planets, moons, and asteroids is called the ecliptic plane. When viewed from overhead, the planets also rotate about the Sun in the same counter-clockwise direction. Most moons also rotate around their parent planets in this same direction. The reason for these behaviours relates to how the solar system was formed some 4.6 billion years ago. As astronomers learn more about our own solar system as well as the planets orbiting other stars in the galaxy, it is very possible that this theory may change and evolve. The leading hypothesis to explain how the solar system formed is called the condensation theory, which is based on a related explanation called the nebular theory. A nebula is a large cloud of gas and dust that exists in the depths of interstellar space (the physical space within a galaxy not occupied by stars or their planetary systems). These clouds typically form during the death of a giant star when it goes supernova (dead). This mighty explosion sends most of the star’s mass outward into space as a massive wave of debris. The nebular cloud from which our solar system formed may have accumulated from one or more stars that went supernova billions of years ago. Astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories to discover similar nebular clouds where new stars and possibly planets appear to be in the process of being created. Astronomers estimate that the nebular cloud from which our solar system formed contained about two to three times the mass of the Sun and was about 100 astronomical units (AU) across. An astronomical unit is defined as the average distance between the Sun and Earth, or about 93 million miles (150 million km). Email : calebnda1@yahoo.com