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The Solar System is defined as the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and all objects that orbit it. In this scope, it includes the Sun, its eight planets (with Earth being one of them), dwarf planets, smaller bodies such as asteroids and comets, and natural satellites (moons) that orbit planets or other larger objects. The International Astronomical Union describes the Solar System as all objects bound by the Sun’s gravity, including the Sun itself and the other celestial bodies that orbit it. Its scope also extends to regions shaped by the Sun’s influence in space. The Sun’s fusion-powered energy creates the heliosphere, which is filled by the solar wind and forms an interplanetary medium between Solar System bodies. The heliosphere is bounded by the heliopause, where the solar wind is halted by the interstellar medium, and beyond that lies the outermost reaches of the system, including distant reservoirs such as the Oort cloud. Overall, the Solar System is an isolated single-star planetary system within the Milky Way, not part of a larger multi-star system.
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The Solar System formed at least about 4.568 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a dense region within a large molecular cloud. As the cloud collapsed, it produced the Sun and a surrounding protoplanetary disc, from which material assembled into the bodies that later became the planets and other orbiting objects. In this picture, the collapsing molecular cloud provides both the central star (the Sun) and the rotating disc environment needed for accretion. Over time, matter in the disc gathered into increasingly larger bodies, leading to the formation of an orbiting planetary system. The resulting system is gravitationally bound to the Sun, with most of the system’s mass concentrated in the Sun itself.
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