![]() Believe it or not, any object within this region would probably be orbiting the Sun, and be thought to be a part of the Solar System.īack to our car analogy for a second. The Sun’s gravity dominates local space out to a distance of about 2 light-years, or almost half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star: Proxima Centauri. ![]() Although we can’t see the Oort Cloud directly, the long-period comets that drop into the inner Solar System from time to time are thought to originate from this region. Credit: NASAIn the furthest reaches of the Solar System is the Oort Cloud a theorized cloud of icy objects that could orbit the Sun to a distance of 100,000 astronomical units, or 1.87 light-years away. The layout of the solar system, including the Oort Cloud, on a logarithmic scale. This material piles up into a comet-like tail that can extend 230 AU from the Sun.īut the true size of the Solar System is defined by the reach of its gravity how far away an object can still be said to orbit the Sun. This is the point where the Sun’s solar wind, traveling outward at 400 kilometers per second collides with the interstellar medium – the background material of the galaxy. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/CI LabEven further out, at about 80-200 AU is the termination shock. In this new view, the heliopause is not a continuous shield that separates the solar domain from the interstellar medium, but a porous membrane with fingers and indentations. The heliosheath is filled with “magnetic bubbles” (shown in the red pattern) that fill out the region ahead of the heliopause. The Kuiper Belt, where we find a Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea, extends from 30 astronomical units all the way out to 50 AU, or 7.5 billion kilometers.Īrtist’s interpretation depicting the new view of the heliosphere. The furthest dwarf planet, Eris, orbits within just a fraction of the larger Solar System. Our Solar System extends much, much farther than where the planets are.
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