The solar system is a complex system of moving masses held together by gravitational forces.  At the center of this system is a star called the Sun, which is the dominant mass (99.87%).  Revolving around the Sun are nine rotating planets, over 60 satellites (moons), thousands of asteroids, vast number of comets and meteorites, a solar wind composed of charged particles, gases, and very small masses that are referred to as interplanetary dust particles.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543) developed the theory of the Sun-centered, or Heliocentric model of the solar system.  For more details on the life of Copernicus, click below.

Other astronomers who continued were the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe(1546 - 1601), and Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630) a German mathematician and astronomer.  Kepler proposed three laws of planetary motion. They are:

1.    All planets move in elliptical paths around the Sun with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse.

2.    An imaginary line (radial vector) joining a planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal periods of time.

3.    The square of the sidereal period of a planet is proportional to the cube of its semimajor axis (one-half the major axis).

For more details:     Kepler's laws

For more information on Kepler and the laws of planetary motion click below.

A problem using the third law to calculate the period of a planet is solved in the solution section.

Our Solar system consists of the Sun, the nine Planets, asteroids, meteoroids, and comets.  The planets in order of their position from the Sun are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. (My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas)
 Titus-Bode Law
The Sun
fact about sun
For an over view of the nine planets click below
 Information of the nine planets
 
 

For details of each planet, and the other components of our Solar System click

below
 

Mercury	Mercury
Venus	Venus
Earth	Earth
Mars	Mars
Jupiter	Jupiter
Saturn	Saturn
Uranus	Uranus
Neptune	Neptune
Pluto	Pluto
Meteoroids	Meteoroids
Asteroids	Asteroids
Comets	Comets
The Moon	The Moon
The Sun	The Sun

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