Formation of the Solar System

Study Notes

Solar system located in the Milky Way Galaxy, 28,000 light years from the center.
It revolves around the Milky Way's center approximately every 240 million years.
Solar nebular hypothesis explains formation from a nebula of dust and gas, producing the sun, planets, moons, and asteroids around 4.5 billion years ago.

Ptolemy introduced epicycles to explain the complex motion of planets, accounting for retrograde movements observed over time.

Kepler’s 1st Law indicates that planets orbit in elliptical paths, though they are nearly circular with low eccentricity.
Earth's average orbital eccentricity is 0.017, indicating its orbit is 98.3% circular.

Mercury orbits the Sun every 88 Earth days at speeds of nearly 112,000 mph, with a highly elliptical orbit ranging from 29 to 43 million miles from the Sun.
Venus has an orbital period of 0.615 Earth years (approximately 224.7 days) with an average speed of 78,341 mph.
Earth orbits at an average distance of 149.6 million km (92.96 million mi) in 365.256 days, equivalent to 940 million km traveled per year.
Mars completes its orbit every 1.88 Earth years (686.93 days) at an average speed of 53,979 mph.

Jupiter's orbital period is 11.86 Earth years (4,330.6 days) with an average speed of 29,236 mph.
Saturn takes approximately 29.4 Earth years (10,756 Earth days) for one orbit, with a rotation period of 10.7 hours.
Uranus orbits the Sun in about 84 Earth years (30,687 Earth days) and has a unique axial tilt of 97.77 degrees, likely due to a past collision.
Neptune completes an orbit in about 165 Earth years (60,190 Earth days) with a rotation period of 16 hours.