Talk:Solar System

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Solar System article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: Index, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10: 90 days

This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Solar System is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

Solar System is the main article in the Solar System series, a featured topic. This is identified as among the best series of articles produced by the Wikipedia community. If you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on April 9, 2007, and on October 29, 2023.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
June 6, 2006	Peer review	Reviewed
June 20, 2006	Peer review	Reviewed
July 10, 2006	Peer review	Reviewed
August 4, 2006	Peer review	Reviewed
August 5, 2006	Good article nominee	Not listed
August 8, 2006	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
November 7, 2006	Featured topic candidate	Promoted
December 7, 2006	Peer review	Reviewed
January 27, 2007	Good article nominee	Listed
February 17, 2007	Featured article candidate	Promoted
May 12, 2009	Featured article review	Kept
June 13, 2021	Featured topic removal candidate	Demoted
June 20, 2022	Featured topic candidate	Promoted
July 9, 2022	Featured article review	Kept
Current status: Featured article

Astronomy: Astronomical objects / Solar System Top‑importance

	Astronomy portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Astronomy, which collaborates on articles related to Astronomy on Wikipedia.AstronomyWikipedia:WikiProject AstronomyTemplate:WikiProject AstronomyAstronomy articles
Top	This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by WikiProject Astronomical objects, which collaborates on articles related to astronomical objects.
	This article is supported by Solar System task force (assessed as Top-importance).

Spoken Wikipedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles that are spoken on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Spoken WikipediaWikipedia:WikiProject Spoken WikipediaTemplate:WikiProject Spoken WikipediaSpoken Wikipedia articles

Other talk page banners

This article has previously been nominated to be moved. Please review the prior discussions if you are considering re-nomination.

Discussions:

No consensus to move, 26 July 2005, from Solar system to Solar System, see discussion.
Moved, 27 August 2006, from Solar system to Solar System, see discussion.
No consensus to move, 23 May 2018, from Solar System to Solar system, see discussion.

Daily pageviews of this article

A graph should have been displayed here but graphs are temporarily disabled. Until they are enabled again, visit the interactive graph at pageviews.wmcloud.org

Section sizes

Section size for Solar System (36 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	14,563	14,563
Formation and evolution	84	15,903
Past	10,431	10,431
Present and future	5,388	5,388
General characteristics	953	26,541
Composition	3,927	3,927
Orbits	8,862	8,862
Distances and scales	6,714	6,714
Habitability	2,430	2,430
Comparison with extrasolar systems	3,655	3,655
Sun	8,899	8,899
Inner Solar System	1,451	50,770
Inner planets	24,947	24,947
Asteroids	8,272	24,372
Asteroid belt	16,100	16,100
Outer Solar System	589	20,838
Outer planets	18,045	18,045
Centaurs	2,204	2,204
Trans-Neptunian region	1,281	31,749
Kuiper belt	15,816	15,816
Scattered disc	5,239	5,239
Extreme trans-Neptunian objects	4,002	4,002
Edge of the heliosphere	5,411	5,411
Miscellaneous populations	32	8,071
Comets	2,583	2,583
Meteoroids, meteors and dust	5,456	5,456
Boundary area and uncertainties	9,707	9,707
Celestial neighborhood	9,663	9,663
Galactic position	8,134	8,134
Discovery and exploration	17,485	17,485
See also	370	370
Notes	43	43
References	18	170
Data sources	117	117
Other sources	35	35
External links	1,148	1,148
Total	224,054	224,054

What's the point of changing the "asteroid belt" topic header to "asteroids" if you're not going to mention other asteroids?

Asteroids within the asteroid belt are not covered. Serendi ^podous 22:50, 2 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There's some discussion at the end of the section. Praemonitus (talk) 14:53, 3 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Never mind. I'll do it. Serendi ^podous 16:11, 3 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Distance conversions?

In some spots, distances in AU are presented without conversion, while others convert it to miles and km. It's inconsistent. The size of an AU is well defined at the start of the "Distances and scales" section. Do you think we can use AU thereafter without the intermittent conversions? An example is the Asteroid belt section, where the inner and outer radius from the Sun is converted, then AU is used for orbital distances without conversion. The benefit of the AU in this context is that it provides a convenient scale. There shouldn't be a need to keep converting it; that just adds clutter. Praemonitus (talk) 18:32, 3 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

agree, AUs should be enough. there is no way anyone can imagine what (15 billion km; 9.3 billion mi) is, 100 AU does the same job and is more concise. Artem.G (talk) 19:12, 3 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Support removing conversions. The distances in kilometers are simply too large, astronomical units are more appropriate to such large scales. InTheAstronomy32 (talk) 01:02, 4 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

As a note, a lot of other prominent astronomy articles employ this too (e.g. Pluto); should we remove conversions there as well? ArkHyena (talk) 01:17, 4 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well the pluto article just jumps in and starts using AU without defining it, so I'm not sure. Perhaps that's a more general discussion for WP:AST? If there's a consensus, it could go in the astronomy style guide. Praemonitus (talk) 03:26, 4 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Why do we need a Spaceflight section?

I'm unclear why this section is needed. It discusses spaceflight maneuvering, rather than the properties of the Solar System. The previous section already mentions the history of exploration via spacecraft. This discussion can be better handled via a link in the "See also" section. Praemonitus (talk) 13:31, 13 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I support removing most of the content; some of the info relevant to major missions could also be merged w/ the above subsection. ArkHyena (talk) 18:47, 13 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

bow shock

A factual issue: this article states the Solar System creates a bow shock within the surrounding ISM, whereas the Heliosphere#Bow_shock article-section states this has been determined to be not the case. The Heliosphere page's applicable reference is more recent than that of this article. 98.1.3.105 (talk) 17:48, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the input. However, I don't think a bow shock has been completely ruled out.[1][2] Praemonitus (talk) 23:27, 28 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]