solar system

1. often Solar System The sun together with the eight planets and all other celestial bodies that orbit the sun.

2. A system of planets or other bodies orbiting a star.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

solar system

(Astronomy) the system containing the sun and the bodies held in its gravitational field, including the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), the dwarf planets (Eris, Pluto, and Ceres), the asteroids, and comets

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

so′lar sys`tem

the sun together with all the planets and other bodies that revolve around it.

[1695–1705]

solar system

1. Often Solar System The sun together with the planets and all other bodies that orbit the sun, including moons, asteroids, and comets. See more at nebular hypothesis.

2. A system of planets or other bodies orbiting another star.

Did You Know? Usually, we think of the solar system as simply including the sun and the planets. We may even remember the moons that revolve around several planets. But actually, the solar system contains billions of other objects as well and extends far beyond the orbit of Neptune. Several hundred thousand asteroids have been discovered, and countless smaller asteroids, including the chunks of debris formed during the collision of larger bodies, are out there as well. These smaller particles may come near Earth—as many as a billion meteors, most the size of a speck of dust, cross through our planet's atmosphere each day. Astronomers have recorded more than 800 comets passing through the inner part of the solar system. Billions more, however, lie in the area surrounding the solar system, in the far reaches of the swarm of comets known as the Oort cloud or in the disk of debris known as the Kuiper belt. All of these objects travel around the sun at high speeds in paths called orbits. Some of these orbits, like those of the planets near the sun, are almost circular. Other orbits, like those of comets that make their way in among the planets, are stretched out into long ellipses.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

solar system

Our solar system consists of nine planets. The diameter of each planet, at its equator, is given here. a Mercury 3,031 mi (4,878 km) b Venus 7,521 mi (12,104 km) c Earth 7,926 mi (12,756 km) d Mars 4,222 mi (6,795 km) e Jupiter 88,732 mi (142,800 km) f Saturn 74,565 mi (120,000 km) g Uranus 31,566 mi (50,800 km) h Neptune 30,137 mi (48,500 km) i Pluto 3,725 mi (5,995 km)

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

solar system - the sun with the celestial bodies that revolve around it in its gravitational field

system, scheme - a group of independent but interrelated elements comprising a unified whole; "a vast system of production and distribution and consumption keep the country going"

heliosphere - the region inside the heliopause containing the sun and solar system

earth, globe, world - the 3rd planet from the sun; the planet we live on; "the Earth moves around the sun"; "he sailed around the world"

interplanetary medium - interplanetary space including forms of energy and gas and dust

Jupiter - the largest planet and the 5th from the sun; has many satellites and is one of the brightest objects in the night sky

Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, Kuiper belt - a disk-shaped region of minor planets outside the orbit of Neptune

Mars, Red Planet - a small reddish planet that is the 4th from the sun and is periodically visible to the naked eye; minerals rich in iron cover its surface and are responsible for its characteristic color; "Mars has two satellites"

Mercury - the smallest planet and the nearest to the sun

minor planet, planetoid - any of numerous small celestial bodies that move around the sun

Neptune - a giant planet with a ring of ice particles; the 8th planet from the sun is the most remote of the gas giants; "the existence of Neptune was predicted from perturbations in the orbit of Uranus and it was then identified in 1846"

outer planet - (astronomy) a major planet whose orbit is outside the asteroid belt (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto)

major planet, planet - (astronomy) any of the nine large celestial bodies in the solar system that revolve around the sun and shine by reflected light; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in order of their proximity to the sun; viewed from the constellation Hercules, all the planets rotate around the sun in a counterclockwise direction

Pluto - a small planet and the farthest known planet from the sun; it has the most elliptical orbit of all the planets; "Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930"

Saturn - a giant planet that is surrounded by three planar concentric rings of ice particles; the 6th planet from the sun

Sun - the star that is the source of light and heat for the planets in the solar system; "the sun contains 99.85% of the mass in the solar system"; "the Earth revolves around the Sun"

Uranus - a giant planet with a ring of ice particles; the 7th planet from the sun has a blue-green color and many satellites; "Uranus was discovered by William Herschel in 1781"

Venus - the second nearest planet to the sun; it is peculiar in that its rotation is slow and retrograde (in the opposite sense of the Earth and all other planets except Uranus); it is visible from Earth as an early `morning star' or an `evening star'; "before it was known that they were the same object the evening star was called Venus and the morning star was called Lucifer"

Translations

النِّظام الشَّمْسيمنظومة شمسيةنِظَامٌ شَمْسِيّ

sluneční soustava

solsystem

SonnensystemCeresEris

ηλιακό σύστημα

sistema solar

aurinkokunta

système solaire

solarni sustav

naprendszer

sólkerfi

sistema solare

太陽系

태양계

Saulės sistema

slnečná sústava

solsystem

ระบบสุริยะจักรวาล

güneş sistemi

hệ mặt trời

太阳系

solar

(ˈsəulə) adjective

having to do with, powered by, or influenced by, the sun. the solar year; a solar heating system.

solar ˈpanel noun

a piece of equipment, usually installed on a roof, that absorbs energy from the sun to heat water or turn it into electricity.

ˌsolar-ˈpowered adjective

solar system

the Sun or any star and the planets which move round it.

solar system

→ نِظَامٌ شَمْسِيّ sluneční soustava solsystem Sonnensystem ηλιακό σύστημα sistema solar aurinkokunta système solaire solarni sustav sistema solare 太陽系 태양계 zonnestelsel solsystem układ słoneczny sistema solar солнечная система solsystem ระบบสุริยะจักรวาล güneş sistemi hệ mặt trời 太阳系

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Dim and wonderful is the vision I have conjured up in my mind of life spreading slowly from this little seed bed of the solar system throughout the inanimate vastness of sidereal space.

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My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it.

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Rushmore Coglan, Esq., the Earth, Solar System, the Universe," and have mailed it, feeling confident that it would be delivered to him.

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You will get a better idea of the magnitude of the sidereal system, however, by remembering that, in comparison with it, the distances of our entire solar system are as mere specks.

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Why, I have nine grades in my school and I have to teach a little of everything, from investigating the interiors of earthworms to the study of the solar system. My youngest pupil is four -- his mother sends him to school to `get him out of the way' -- and my oldest twenty -- it `suddenly struck him' that it would be easier to go to school and get an education than follow the plough any longer.

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"The moon, gentlemen, has been carefully studied," continued Barbicane; "her mass, density, and weight; her constitution, motions, distance, as well as her place in the solar system, have all been exactly determined.

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What assurance that I might not as well be hurtled to some far-distant star of another solar system, as to Mars?

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Tulliver had said that he was going to send Tom to the Lord Chancellor; for uncle Pullet belonged to that extinct class of British yeoman who, dressed in good broadcloth, paid high rates and taxes, went to church, and ate a particularly good dinner on Sunday, without dreaming that the British constitution in Church and State had a traceable origin any more than the solar system and the fixed stars.

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There is not, among the most religious and instructed men of the most religious and civil nations, a reliance on the moral sentiment and a sufficient belief in the unity of things, to persuade them that society can be maintained without artificial restraints, as well as the solar system; or that the private citizen might be reasonable and a good neighbor, without the hint of a jail or a confiscation.

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Has the theory of the solar system been advanced by graceful manners and conversational tact?

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One may say a gravitating solar system is already prophesied in the nature of Newton's mind.

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It seemed a hopeless job and I gave it up, temporarily at least, for when I contemplated the necessity explanation of our solar system and the universe I realized how futile it would be to attempt to picture to Ja or any other Pellucidarian the sun, the moon, the planets, and the countless stars.

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