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The asteroid and comet belts orbit the Sun from the inner rocky planets into outer parts of the Solar System, interstellar space. [16] [17] [18] An astronomical unit, or AU, is the distance from Earth to the Sun, which is approximately 150 billion meters (93 million miles). [19] Small Solar System objects are classified by their orbits: [20] [21]
In gravitationally bound systems, the orbital speed of an astronomical body or object (e.g. planet, moon, artificial satellite, spacecraft, or star) is the speed at which it orbits around either the barycenter (the combined center of mass) or, if one body is much more massive than the other bodies of the system combined, its speed relative to the center of mass of the most massive body.
1 080 000 000: miles per second: 186 000: miles per hour [1] 671 000 000: astronomical units per day: 173 [Note 1] parsecs per year: 0.307 [Note 2] Approximate light signal travel times; Distance: Time: one foot: 1.0 ns: one metre: 3.3 ns: from geostationary orbit to Earth: 119 ms: the length of Earth's equator: 134 ms: from Moon to Earth: 1.3 ...
For instance, a small body in circular orbit 10.5 cm above the surface of a sphere of tungsten half a metre in radius would travel at slightly more than 1 mm/s, completing an orbit every hour. If the same sphere were made of lead the small body would need to orbit just 6.7 mm above the surface for sustaining the same orbital period.
G is the universal gravitational constant (G ≈ 6.67 × 10 −11 m 3 ⋅kg −1 ⋅s −2 [4]) g = GM / d 2 is the local gravitational acceleration (or the surface gravity , when d = r ). The value GM is called the standard gravitational parameter , or μ , and is often known more accurately than either G or M separately.
Typically, the stated rotation period for a giant planet (such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) is its internal rotation period, as determined from the rotation of the planet's magnetic field. For objects that are not spherically symmetrical, the rotation period is, in general, not fixed, even in the absence of gravitational or tidal forces.
The Kuiper belt and Neptune may be treated as a marker of the extent of the Solar System, alternatives being the heliopause and the distance at which the Sun's gravitational influence is matched by that of other stars (estimated to be between 50 000 AU and 125 000 AU). [22]
Sun · Saturn · Uranus · Neptune · Pluto Pluto's orbital period is about 248 years. Its orbital characteristics are substantially different from those of the planets, which follow nearly circular orbits around the Sun close to a flat reference plane called the ecliptic .